The Halo Effect
by reptilia28
Summary: Shepard must gather a crew in order to hunt down the rogue Spectre Saren, but on the way she discovers a threat even more ancient than the Flood. AU.
1. Chapter 1

This is a plot bunny that cropped up when I was working on Gateways and Relays.

I think it goes without saying that this is AU.

I own neither Halo nor Mass Effect.

Many thanks to Dusel for being patient enough to be my beta and sounding board.

* * *

Somewhere deep within space there was a ship. This ship was unique because it was born from an attempt to foster goodwill between three peoples that had once been on the brink of war: The humans, the turians, and the members of the New Covenant.

Currently the only occupant on this ship was a dark-skinned human by the name of David Anderson - the captain of the vessel. He stepped into a curved room and pressed a button on a nearby console, bringing up the images of three other figures. One was a human in a dress uniform, the five stars on his shoulders signifying that he was a fleet admiral. The other was a human who wore a white business suit. The third was not human, but a towering reptilian alien wearing polished silver armor.

"Gentlemen," Anderson greeted the three figures before him who greeted him in return. "The crew roster of the _CSV Normandy_ is nearly full, but there is one position left to fill - I need someone to be the executive officer," he continued. "We've kept the discovery of the Prothean beacon on Eden Prime quiet so far but if word gets out then we'll have every unsavory being in the galaxy bearing down on us. We'll also need someone who can stand up to the turian Spectre that will be accompanying us in case things take a turn for the worse." Anderson repressed a chuckle; here he was, captaining a ship built with the turians and with a turian on board. Looking at the Covenant representative he wondered if this mixture of fear and distrust was what his ancestors felt when they first worked alongside the Covenant, who had been their sworn enemies over two hundred years ago.

"Well, that narrows down our list of candidates," said the first man, Fleet Admiral Steven Hackett. "Spectres are the Citadel's elite forces, so we're going to need either a Spec-Ops or Zealot Elite…or a Spartan, neither of which are exactly in abundance."

"All Sangheili of sufficient rank and skill are currently serving elsewhere," said Gara 'Tarum, the Covenant representative. "Perhaps a Mgalekgolo team would be sufficient to take down a Spectre, but they cannot fit within the cramped corridors of the _Normandy_."

"Understood, Ambassador 'Tarum, thank you," Anderson said respectfully. The third human, Ambassador Donnel Udina was looking at something displayed on the data pad in his hand. It was a military profile for a female soldier: A Caucasian woman with deep green eyes and auburn hair that reached just past her ears.

"What about Shepard?" he suggested. "Her performance scores for all classes of weapons are exceptionally high and her combat record is excellent." Admiral Hackett had someone from beyond his projection hand him a data pad and looked up Shepard's profile himself.

"It says here that she was born on Mindoir; her parents were killed during the attack," he said as he read through the data. "A few years later she got her revenge by slaughtering every Batarian that she came across during the assault on Torfan, even those who surrendered. Are we sure we want someone like this on this mission?"

"Citadel Spectres are not bound by any law save their own moral code," Ambassador 'Tarum pointed out. "We would need someone similarly uninhibited to take the Spectre out should he turn on us."

"I agree," Udina said. "The turians may have helped us build this ship but I don't trust them, not yet."

"Very well then," Anderson said after a moment's consideration. "I'll make the call."

* * *

SPARTAN-IVs were a new breed of super-soldier that was ranked between the expendable SPARTAN-IIIs and the legendary SPARTAN-IIs of the Human-Covenant War in skill, power and expense. First implemented in 2592, the SPARTAN-IV program was created as a peacekeeping division in response to growing dissent amongst the UNSC's outer colonies, mirroring the emergence of the Insurrectionists just prior to the Human-Covenant War. Their secondary purpose was to act as elite forces in the event that the UNSC should encounter another hostile alien force. Brought in from the best soldiers that the UNSC armed forces had to offer, SPARTAN-IVs were physically and mentally augmented as far as their already-developed bodies could possible withstand. Over two hundred years of improving medical technology had reduced the mortality rate of the augmentation process to less than one percent; however, the stringent criteria to be eligible for SPARTAN training ensured that there were only a few hundred of these individuals. Jane Shepard-149 is one such Spartan.

Shepard was short for a Spartan, standing at only sixty-six inches tall. However, her small figure proved deceiving when she once beat several men nearly a foot taller than her in a sparring match. Currently she was beating on a punching bag with the local artificial gravity set at 150 percent when she heard someone clearing their throat. She stopped her assault to see a Navy Ensign standing before her, an earpiece in his hand.

"Ma'am, Captain Anderson wishes to speak to you," he said, offering the small device. Though he hid it well, Shepard could tell through his strained speech and sweaty brow that even this simple act was an exertion in the artificially heavy room.

"Thank you, Ensign," Shepard said as she took the earpiece from the poor man's hand. "Dismissed." The Ensign saluted and left the gym, breathing a sigh of relief as he felt the extra weight being lifted off of his shoulders. Chuckling, Shepard placed the communication device in her ear and activated it. "Shepard speaking."

"Commander Shepard, this is Captain Anderson," a deep male voice said on the other end of the line. "I have your next assignment: You are to report at Dock Nine at the Alaris Shipyard at oh-eight-hundred hours zulu tomorrow. The details of your assignment will be given to you there. Understood?"

"Aye sir: Dock Nine at the Alaris Shipyard at oh-eight-hundred zulu. I'll be there," Shepard said before deactivating the earpiece. _Alaris?_ Shepard thought in confusion. _That's on the edge of turian space_. Shrugging, Shepard gave the bag one final kick before she left to bathe and pack. _Guess I'll find out tomorrow_.

* * *

The Alaris Shipyard is a small UNSC space station dedicated to repairing and resupplying both UNSC and Covenant ships traveled through the area. The station itself had twelve docking stations, with a few smaller repair stations orbiting it. The fact that it sat near the border between turian and UNSC space ensured that there was always a heavy military presence around the station during the First Contact War.

Shepard stepped off her transport and into the long line queued to enter the station itself. With majority of the people in line humans in either standard soldier uniforms or dress uniforms, along with a few Covenant aliens, Shepard was quite a sight with her wearing the iconic green armor of the Spartans with a duffel bag slung over her shoulder. When Shepard had finally reached the front desk the receptionist was momentarily in awe of her before composing herself.

"What is your name and business here?" she asked professionally.

"Commander Jane Shepard One-Four-Nine, reporting to Captain Anderson at Dock Nine," Shepard answered with equal calm and professionalism.

"Please place your hand on the palm scanner," the receptionist said, pointing to the piece of equipment in question. Setting her duffel bag down, Shepard removed her right glove and placed her hand on the scanner. The device glowed red as it read her handprint and beeped in confirmation. "You're cleared, Shepard. Godspeed." Shepard reattached her glove and grabbed her bag before entering the station and making her way towards Dock Nine. When she arrived Shepard saw Anderson standing around waiting for her. She set her bag down and snapped into a salute.

"Commander Shepard One-Four-Nine, reporting for duty, sir!" she said.

"At ease, Commander," Anderson replied crisply, returning the salute. "Come with me, and I'll fill you in on your assignment." Shepard grabbed her bag and followed Anderson into the _Normandy_ airlock. The door slid closed behind her and the room was filled with the cleansing spray.

"Decontamination in progress," a synthetic female voice chimed as a laser began to sweep through the room, scanning the two occupants.

"Huh, didn't think the Citadel Council would allow an AI onto a ship that they helped build," Shepard quipped.

"It's not an AI," Anderson said with a sour face. "It's a Virtual Intelligence: Like a dumb AI, only dumber. All it does basically is tell people what's happening when. I don't care much for it, but we must make sacrifices for the sake of inter-species cooperation," Anderson said with a sigh, only to start coughing when he inhaled too much of the misty decontamination fluid.

"Decontamination sequence complete," the VI said. "Welcome aboard, Captain Anderson." The interior door opened with a hiss to allow Anderson and Shepard entry into the main deck of the ship where the Captain led his guest to the conference room before turning to the Spartan.

"Alright, here's the information you need," Anderson began. "One week ago, some workers on Eden Prime uncovered a Prothean relic, apparently intact. As I'm sure you know a working piece of Prothean technology is valuable both to us and to the Citadel. The Council's agreed to keep this quiet while we transport it, but in return they want one of their agents to supervise the collection and then escort it to a neutral location where both our sides can study it."

"You mean send someone to make sure we don't take it all for ourselves," Shepard inferred. "Who are they sending?"

"A turian Spectre named Nihlus Kryik," Anderson said, bringing up and image of the turian in question on one of the holo-projectors. "The Council's not exactly forthcoming with information on the guy, but from what we can gather he's one of their best." Anderson pressed a button and the image of Nihlus disappeared. "Officially, you're the executive officer of this ship. Unofficially, you're here to make sure that nothing bad happens to the Prothean relic during transport. Also, you're to keep an eye on Nihlus Kryik in case he tries to do anything."

"You really think that the Citadel would try to steal a Prothean relic from under our noses?" Shepard asked.

"I don't know," Anderson said, shaking his head. "I'm hoping that it's just the brass being paranoid, but no one can say for certain." Anderson pulled out a small PDA from his pocket and handed it to Shepard. "Here's a crew roster to acquaint yourself with. We depart in two hours." After exchanging salutes, Anderson left the room. Pulling up a chair Shepard began to read through the dossiers.

* * *

Five minutes before departure, the turian Spectre Nihlus Kryik finally appeared. His skin was almost as dark as his armor, and his face was covered with white markings painted in elaborate patterns. After going through the decontamination process he entered the _Normandy_ where he saw humans bustling around in performance of their duties. He was approached by a human wearing bulky green armor.

"Welcome aboard the _Normandy_," she greeted with an extended hand. "Captain Anderson is currently in a meeting. I'm Commander Shepard, XO. You must be the Spectre we're expecting."

"I am," Nihlus said, taking the offered handshake. "Nihlus Kryik at your service. I hope that this ship and this mission will help to dispel the distrust between our two species."

"One can hope," Shepard said "Of course, that's only if we can get the relic from Eden Prime to the drop-off point without incident. We can only hope that nothing bad happens along the way."

"One can hope," Nihlus echoed her earlier statement. Bowing his head slightly, Nihlus headed towards the helm. _He seems amicable enough_, Shepard thought. _Still, orders are orders_. As she followed the turian she tried not to hope that nothing would go wrong. If she did, she figured that something inevitably would.

Her effort would be in vain.

* * *

**CODEX ENTRY 3.65 – THE SYSTEMS ALLIANCE**** AND THE CITADEL COUNCIL**

_The United Nations Space Command formally allied with a group of aliens collectively known as the New Covenant in the year 2553 to form a new Systems Alliance. While a previous conflict had lead the two sides to be initially untrusting of each other, over two hundred years of alliance have washed away any overt hostilities between the two entities._

_They first encountered the Citadel races when the turians discovered humans tampering with a Mass Relay. Such an act is considered illegal under Citadel law, but a particularly zealous turian commander ordered the fleet to open fire on the human vessels before negotiations could be made. Despite the turians outnumbering the human ships 3 to 1, the humans managed to deal significant damage to the fleet due to their surprisingly powerful kinetic weapons. In a surprising display, the humans eventually fled the battlefield using a method that did not use the Mass Relay or any other apparent use of Element Zero._

_After repairing the damaged ships, the Turian Hierarchy approved a fleet to investigate the Mass Relay that the humans were tampering with. This eventually led to the discovery of the human colony Shanxi._

_After the attack on Shanxi led to heavy casualties on both sides, the Council stepped in to cease further hostilities. An offer of induction into the Citadel was extended to both members of the Systems Alliance. In a move that shocked all citizens of the Citadel races, both parties rejected the offers, citing that the conditions of the alliance were too restrictive. The two alliances are currently undergoing negotiations to create a satisfying treaty._

_Although not members of the Citadel, both the UNSC and the New Covenant have an embassy in the Presidium. As of this writing, approximately 3,000 humans and 2900 Covenant members are currently occupying the Citadel, mostly within the Wards. Popular opinion among the Citadel races concerning their presence range from mildly fascinated to indifferent._

_See also: Battle of Shanxi; UNSC; New Covenant_

* * *

I just want to nip this issue in the bud right now. For those of you who are about to write a review complaining that Halo ships should be able to rip Mass Effect ships a new one, I would like to point out that in this fic, the Citadel has had nearly _**six hundred years**_ to improve their tech.

Don't forget to review.


	2. Chapter 2

I don't own Halo or Mass Effect.

Thanks to Dusel and Havoc-legionnaire for betaing this chapter. Havoc-legionnaire has been particularly helpful with getting the weapons right.

Orbiting halfway through the Utopia system, a Mass Relay flared to life and welcomed the arrival of the _CSV Normandy_. As the vessel drifted onwards into the system the ship's pilot reviewed the system readings.

"All systems in the green…drifting at fifteen hundred kay," Flight Lieutenant Jeff "Joker" Moreau said. "We're here, guys." Behind him Nihlus, the turian Spectre's mandibles flapped slightly as he gave a soft grunt of approval.

"Very good, Lieutenant," He said before turning to head elsewhere in the ship. Joker scowled and shook his head before returning his attention to his console.

"I really hate that guy," the scruffy-faced and bearded pilot muttered. Beside him a man in his late twenties with slicked up, black hair and a healthy tan and strong facial features looked at him with a mixture of amusement and confusion.

"The guy gives you a compliment and you hate him?" co-pilot Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko asked. "I don't follow."

"Hey, remembering to zip up your suit after you use the john, _that's_ good. I managed to hit a target the size of a pinhead. That's freaking fantastic!" Joker exclaimed.

"I'll be sure to write you a commendation for that, Lieutenant Moreau," a voice deadpanned behind him. Joker spun his chair around to find him sitting before Commander Shepard.

"Commander, what a surprise!" Joker exclaimed. "What brings you up here?"

"Just wanted to get to know the crew better," Shepard said with a shrug. "This way, I'll know who to blame if this ship crashes." she finished. Joker laughed at what he hoped was a joke on her part while Kaidan merely smiled while he continued to monitor the _Normandy's_ readings on the orange holo-screens in front of him.

"A superior officer with a sense of humor, I like that," Joker said. "And please, the name's Joker. The pretty boy over there's Alenko." he continued pointing his thumb at Kaidan.

"Ma'am," he said, standing up and snapping at attention. Shepard returned his salute and Kaidan returned to his seat.

"So Commander, are the rumors true?" Joker asked. Shepard raised an eyebrow at him. Rumors on a ship this small?

"That would depend, Lieutenant," she countered. "What rumors are you referring to?"

"Well, the official story is that we're just here to put the _Normandy_ through her paces," Joker began, lowering his voice to a whisper. "But we've got Captain Anderson with his venerated career, a Citadel Spectre and, well…you, Commander. Three military big shots seem a bit excessive for a maiden voyage, don't you think? So what's the story?" he finished eagerly. Shepard grinned and leaned forward slightly.

"You want to know the truth, Joker?" she asked softly. Checking to make sure that no one was looking she leaned closer to Joker, their noses almost touching, making even Kaidan stop what he was doing to stare at them. "The truth is…" she whispered before speaking louder, shocking the pilot, "…is that you should spend less time listening to scuttlebutt and more time flying." Joker groaned and rubbed his ears to alleviate the pain in them.

"Aye, Commander," he said with a deadpan. "We'll be reaching Eden Prime in about five minutes." Nodding in satisfaction, Shepard turned and walked back into the main body of the ship. Joker sighed as he watched her depart.

"I never thought there'd be someone that would make Spartan armor seem sexy, but _damn_," he said chuckling. "I wonder what she looks like under it," he continued.

"Joker, that's our superior officer that you're talking about!" Kaidan hissed, scandalized.

"So?" Joker asked, shrugging. "Admit it, you were checking out her ass when she left, weren't you?" Instead of replying, Kaidan gritted his teeth and focused his attention on his console although his cheeks had a slight pink tinge to them.

As Shepard made her way past the _Normandy's_ CIC she noticed two people loitering near the elevator. One was an older woman in the standard UNSC medical officer full body uniform with full gray hair and very few cresses to go along with it that Shepard recognized from the dossiers she had been given earlier as Doctor Carolyn Chakwas, the ship's chief and only medical officer. Her partner in conversation was Corporal Richard Jenkins, a young man fresh out of boot camp wearing the off-duty fatigues and beret of the UNSC Marine Corps. Shepard also recalled Jenkins' profile mentioning that he was from Eden Prime, their destination. She cleared her throat and the two people stopped their conversation and stood at attention, giving a salute

"At ease," Shepard said as she returned the salute. "Jenkins, I understand that you're from Eden Prime," she said, turning to the young soldier. "What's it like?"

"Well it's kind of hard to describe, ma'am," Jenkins said, suddenly nervous that _the_ Commander Shepard, one of, if not _the_ best Spartan of the current generation was speaking to him. "The colony's mostly farmland with a couple of factories to fix the machines when they break. It's really peaceful and most of all beautiful there; when I was a kid I'd hang out on the hills just outside of town and just…stare at the stars." Jenkins gave a wistful sigh as he was momentarily lost in memories before returning to reality. "Anyway, I'm hoping to see some action on this mission," he said excitedly. "I mean, what with you, Captain Anderson _and_ a Spectre, something big has _got_ to be going down, right?"

"With any luck, this trip will be uneventful. As always eager as I am for a fight I'd rather not have to use my weapons when on a colony like Eden Prime," Shepard explained with hands crossed behind her back. "On the off-chance that something bad _does_ happen, I expect you to keep your head down; no being a hero, got it?"

"Yes ma'am!" Jenkins said, saluting. Any further exchange that may have been shared between the two soldiers was interrupted by Joker's voice over the PA.

"Commander Shepard, Captain Anderson would like to see you in the comm room," the pilot said. "Sounded pretty urgent too." Dismissing the young corporal and the doctor, Shepard marched over to the comm room to find both Anderson and Nihlus already awaiting her.

"Shepard, I'm glad you're here," Anderson said with a little worry in his voice. "We just dropped out of FTL when we received this distress call, audio only," he continued as he pressed a button on a console. A panicked male voice began to ring throughout the room.

"This is Sergeant James Farron calling all Alliance vessels! We are under attack!" the voice shouted. Gunfire and indistinct shouting filled the background. "The colony is being attacked by these robots and…things, they look like zombies. They're overrunning the colony!"

"Sir, we need to get out of here!" a female voice shouted in the background, punctuated by more gunfire.

"Shit," Sergeant Farron exclaimed; immediately afterwards, the recording ended and Anderson turned to Shepard.

"I don't know what's going on down there," he said, "but I want you and your team ready to hit groundside in five minutes."

"Yes sir!" Shepard exclaimed with a salute. She could already feel the adrenaline pumping in her veins.

Five minutes later Shepard, Jenkins, Kaidan and Nihlus were suited up and waiting in the _Normandy's_ hangar bay for the ship to reach groundside so that they could drop off. Nihlus was armed with the dark gray armor with red highlights and weapons typical of a Spectre – experimental, one of a kind or custom made, top quality and deadly when it came to his weapons.

Shepard's primary weapon was the M-55 Advanced Combat Rifle, a powerful and versatile weapon created soon after the First Covenant War, and had quickly replaced the MA5 series of assault rifles as the workhorse rifle of the UNSC. She also grabbed a particle beam rifle as well as several fragmentation and plasma grenades. Her Covenant sniper weapon had been slimmed down to be more compact, as well as having a removable battery to drastically increase battlefield lifespan.

Jenkins was wearing the standard USNC Marine uniform and armed with an M-55 as well; he also carried the next-gen plasma pistol as his secondary weapon – smaller and more compact then its Covenant War predecessor, it resembled the Mass Effect-powered Citadel side-arms with the difference that it was green and fired bolts of plasma. Like all Covenant plasma-based weaponry, it contained a removable battery to provide additional ammunition.

Due to being one of the few human Biotics and a native to Shanxi, Kaidan wore a special light, skin-tight armor that weighed less than a standard Marine one but also provided less protection; luckily, the constant barrier that his biotics provided was a sufficient secondary protection. He was armed with an M22 Personal Defense Rifle. Though slightly larger and heavier than its predecessor the M7 Caseless Submachine Gun, it boasted much greater recoil control. It's relatively small and light frame made it ideal for the Biotic; he also carried a plasma pistol with him.

"Approaching the first drop zone," Joker announced. The hangar door opened to reveal Eden Prime's landscape as a green and brown blur streaking beneath them. The ship eventually slowed to a stop, and Nihlus prepared to jump out.

"You sure you don't need any backup, Nihlus?" Anderson asked over the roar of the _Normandy's_ engines as he gave the turian a small device that he looked at curiously. "It's a transponder," Andrson explained. "You'll appear as a friendly to anyone that looks at their movement radar. I don't want to risk anyone taking a lucky pot shot at you!"

"Thank you, I'll keep that in mind and I prefer to work alone…" Nihlus shouted back as he strapped the transponder to his utility belt, "…but thanks for the offer." After he jumped out of the ship and ran off into the distance, the _Normandy_ lifted back up and flew a short distance away before setting down again. This time, Shepard and her team stepped off.

"Your objective is to secure the Prothean relic," Anderson said through Shepard's radio as the three-man team secured the LZ. "I've had Joker mark its last known location on the map. Get there ASAP."

"Understood, Shepard out," The Spartan confirmed before lifting her weapon to a combat-ready stance followed by her subordinates. The three soldiers swiftly crossed the field that they had landed in and made their way to the colony proper, ignoring the docile gas bags floating around the area. Everything was relatively quiet except a burst of fire from the distance every few seconds; that was before Jenkins' exclamation pierced the tense silence.

"What the hell happened here?" he said, pointing at not only the distant forms of burning sky-scrapers but the completely burned out husks of what could easily be identified as a pair of humans. _I remember this place…they were probably a couple of teenagers looking for a place to make out…_ Eden Prime native thought sadly. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked back to see Commander Shepard standing behind him. The hand was removed and it formed a signal to get moving. Nodding once the young man raised his rifle as he swore silent retribution.

"Hold," the Spartan whispered after several minutes of silent walking, causing her two companions to stop and go to a crouch. "I'm detecting several hostiles up ahead, get to cover," she ordered as the superior sensor package in her armor warned her of the approaching threat. The three soldiers piled up behind some rocks as seven robotic drones drifted past their position. They looked like a curved discus under which was attached a visual sensor and a gun with unknown capabilities. "Wait for them to pass by," Shepard whispered; as much as she wanted to blow the hostile buggers from the air for all she knew those things could rip her to shreds…not likely but when fighting a completely new opponent caution was not only expected, it was the rule of engagement. When the red dots on her radar disappeared the squad continued their advance.

Their attention was soon drawn to the sound of approaching gunfire. A female marine came from around the bend, firing blindly behind her as two of the drones from earlier were firing at her. For the first time they saw the enemy's weapons in use – a small but visible ripple in the air that was lighted a light blue for a fraction of a second. _Fast…very fast_, thought Shepard.

"Light 'em up!" she shouted not a second later and the three soldiers fired their weapons, ripping through their weak shields and shredding their fragile structures. However one of them had managed to strike the female marine on her leg right before being destroyed, causing her to collapse. "Jenkins, patch her up!" she ordered while she scanned the area for more hostiles. Jenkins jogged up to the injured woman and got down to his knees. The marine was of average looks with the only thing standing apart were her full, pink lips.

"Just try and relax, ma'am," the young soldier said soothingly. He removed her shin guard and pulled up her pants leg to reveal the bloody gash on her calf. "It only grazed you," Jenkins said as he rifled through his many pockets to find his medical kit. "A shot of MediGel should fix that right up."

"That's great," the woman groaned in pain. "…Still hurts like a son of a bitch, though," she added.

"I bet," Jenkins said, chuckling. He opened a small container with transparent goo in at and after putting on a latex glove, Jenkins applied some of the healing substance onto his fingers before rubbing it into and around the wound. Finally, he tore off a length of gauze and wrapped the wound in it. "There, good as new," he said, snapping off his glove and reassembling his med kit. Just as he finished packing and helped the other marine to her feet Shepard came up to them.

"This is bad Commander; the shot went clean through the fabric and the shin guard. We're talking plasma heat-resistant carbon nanotube and borazine webbings and microfiber-infused titanium metal matrix composites," Jenkins explained with shakiness in his voice.

"The mission must be finished regardless; this just means that we'll have to be extra careful. You alright, soldier?" Shepard asked.

"I am now, ma'am," the other now relieved woman said, saluting. "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the Two-Twelfth, ma'am!" she said.

"Commander Shepard, SPARTAN One-Four-Nine," Shepard replied, saluting back. "I believe you've already met Corporal Jenkins, and this is Lieutenant Alenko. What can you tell us about what happened here?" she asked.

"Can't really say, Commander," Ashley said as she started pacing back and forth.  
About five minutes before you guys arrived, this big-ass ship touched down on top of the colony and all these robots started crawling around. One of the other guys said that they were geth, but I was a bit too busy trying not to die to confirm it. I mean c'mon, geth – all the Intel we've got on them says that they haven't shown themselves for nine hundred years. Whatever they are, I'm all that's left of my squad," she finished bitterly.

"How big is 'big-ass', Chief?" Shepard asked as she tried to keep the marine's mind on the task at hand.

"I couldn't say for certain, but I'd guess that it's bigger than a Marathon-class cruiser, looked like a giant squid though, kind of freaky…" Ashley said.

"And you're saying it landed _on the ground_?" Kaidan asked incredulously, normally for a ship that size it would take a small fleet of tugs to help guide it. For one to land on its own would mean that it was either their enemy was more advanced then they had anticipated or that there was not much of the colony left under it, both were distasteful scenarios.

"Clearly this is something that we haven't seen before," Shepard began, gathering the attention of her subordinates. "We need to keep sharp if we're going to figure out what's going on here. But first, we need to secure that Prothean artifact," she finished with a pointed look at Williams.

"It's not that far from here," Ashley said, pointing back the way that she came. "Follow me."

The four soldiers followed the path up to the dig site. However when they got there, there was no Prothean relic in sight. Instead, there were several robots patrolling the area where the relic used to be. They had double-jointed legs and thin bodies with elongated heads that had a glowing light instead of a face reminiscent of a flashlight. Two of the robots were dragging a half conscious colonist to a strange tri-legged platform and roughly held him down. Before the soldiers could react a large spike shot out from the platform and impaled him, blood bursting from the wound.

Shepard and her squad watched the display unfold before them with morbid fascination, rooted on the spot by the gory display. The now limp man's body began to convulse as his flesh began to shrivel and darken. Glowing blue lines snaked out from the spike protruding out from the colonist's abdomen until it covered the entire body like circuitry. Its work complete, the spike began to recede back into the platform, releasing its victim. The new being pushed itself off the platform and began to shamble around in a zombie-like gait with a hole in its stomach that was rapidly being closed by even more of the strange cybernetics.

Swapping out her assault rifle for a particle beam rifle, Shepard zoomed in on the head of one of the robots. Taking a calming breaths to steady her aim – it was not every day one saw something like that, not since the days of the Covenant Wars and more specifically the Flood outbreak – Shepard smoothly pulled the trigger back until it clicked, releasing a neon pink beam of energy that bypassed, or more specifically decimated whatever shields and armor that the robot had and burning a neat little hole in its head. As the first synthetic fell lifelessly to the ground its companions turned and began to fire at the direction that the shot had come from, forcing Shepard to duck behind her cover as weapons fire started to chip at the rocks they were hiding behind.

"They've spotted us, take them out!" she shouted a heartbeat later. While the three soldiers behind her fired upon the enemy forces with their automatic weapons, Shepard lined up her next shot at center mass of one of the oncoming robots and fired. The blast punched through the synthetic's body, but unlike its companion it did not fall. _Damn it!_ Shepard thought. _Figures that since it's a robot the kill spots would be different_. Muttering curses under her breath, Shepard aimed at its head and fired a second time. This time it fell, either dead or deactivated; all that mattered to Shepard at the moment was that it was not firing on her or her squad mates. The human husk of a being charged at the squad with surprising speed but the three automatic weapons shredded it apart before it got close enough though as she noted it took more concentrated fire then the Spartan would have been comfortable with to take down, but it was an enemy with unknown capabilities; once the eggheads at Fleet HQ received her video and sensory scans they would think of better ways to kill them.

Shepard's attention was broken when she saw a beam of enemy weapons fire zoom to her right and she realized that her Spartan reflexes had kicked in, but unfortunately there was nothing to be done as the shot that now looked more like a laser struck Jenkins several times in the chest faster then she could have reacted. Two thoughts came to the forefront of her mind as the marine fell with a scream of pain beside her One – the shot punched clean through Jenkin's breastplate though it did not go through the other side meaning that the armor was semi-effective, unlike the shin-guards and Two – that this was such a Spartan thought to think when one of the soldiers under her command was gunned down.

Unable to help him now, Shepard continued to snipe the robots with even greater vigor. Between the sniping and the hail of bullets overwhelming the robots' shields, their synthetic bodies were shredded until they were nothing but smoldering piles of scrap. With the skirmish over, Kaidan set his weapon aside and checked Jenkins' pulse.

"Shot must have went through his armor and hit his heart," he said with sadness, closing the young fallen soldier's eyes. "Poor kid never stood a chance." It was always tough to lose Marines, especially since it was happened on fewer occasions these days, with the exception of Shanxi.

"We can ensure that he receives a proper funeral later," Shepard said, swapping her beam rifle for her assault rifle. "Right now, we need to focus on the mission." She was a Spartan on a mission; the dead could be honored and mourned later.

"Yes, ma'am." Kaidan said as he grabbed his weapon and stood back up. With the Prothean relic not where it was supposed to be, Shepard activated her in-suit radio to contact Nihlus about the development.

Nihlus on the other hand was not sure whether he should be happy or concerned that he had no shortage of things to shoot on this mission. On the one hand this was infinitely more exciting than simply watching a bunch of marines load up a dusty Prothean relic – dusty being said only do to boredom and not out of disrespect for the Protheans – onto a ship and escort it to some space station. On the other hand, the targets in question were what seemed to be geth; if he was not mistaken, synthetic beings that had not been spotted outside their domain in almost a thousand years. In addition, he had fought several beings that he had not seen before. Things that looked like humans, except different; they looked like they had had their flesh replaced with cybernetics. They reminded him too much of zombies from human holo-vids for Nihlus' liking, those humans had such twisted minds.

"Nihlus, this is Shepard," the Spartan's voice said from the turian's earpiece. "We've got a problem. We've encountered hostile forces of a synthetic nature and the Prothean relic is not where it's supposed to be," she continued.

"Understood," Nihlus responded. "I'm near the starport, maybe I can find some clues as to where the Prothean relic was moved to. Meet me there, Nihlus out." Shouldering his weapon, Nihlus proceeded to make his way towards the starport. When he arrived he found the port abandoned. There were some destroyed crates and fires as well as blood smears on the ground but the bodies that produced them were nowhere to be found. _Odd_, he thought.

As Nihlus took in the grisly sight a sound behind him prompted him to spin around, gun ready. He lowered his weapon and stared in surprise, mandibles slacking at the person he saw.

"Saren?" he asked incredulously. While a fellow Spectre and a turian like Nihlus, Saren was dull gray in color and his left arm seemed to have been replaced with a cybernetic limb. Also unlike Nihlus, Saren had two protrusions coming out of each cheek.

"Nihlus," Saren responded, his deep voice giving it a naturally sinister edge.

"Saren, what are you doing here?" Nihlus asked. "You weren't assigned to this mission!"

"The Council thought that you could use some backup," Saren explained as he stalked around behind Nihlus, who was observing the ruined landscape that had been so pristine several hours before.

"You got that right," the first turian said with a laugh as he looked at the carnage around him. "Geth," he said in disbelief, "of all the things. Why now, after hiding in the Perseus Veil for nine hundred years? It doesn't make sense." Behind him, Saren quietly drew his pistol and raised it up.

"Don't worry about it, Nihlus," he said, aiming the gun at the back of his friend's head. "I have it all under control."

**BANG! **

**CODEX ENTRY 5.22 – HUMAN AND COVENANT WEAPONRY  
**_  
Lacking Element Zero-based technology, the humans' primary weapons are kinetic slugs propelled by either chemical-based explosives or through the use of magnetic fields. The design philosophy of their weapons seems in direct contrast with Citadel designs. Where Citadel weapons fire granular-sized rounds at hypersonic velocities, humans lean more towards higher-caliber rounds at slower velocities. This has led to human weapons being slightly less effective at reducing kinetic barriers as Citadel weapons, although they are much more damaging to exposed flesh and all but the highest grade of Citadel infantry armor. Unless modified, Citadel weapons tend to leave rather small, relatively easy to treat wounds, as they rely entirely on hydrostatic shock and the sheer number of impacts to cause flesh damage. Human weapons on the other hand can leave grievous debilitating wounds even if they are not fatal. Experts have likened the difference between the two designs as the difference between a scalpel and a meat cleaver. This also reflects their respective attitudes towards large formation combat: Citadel forces prefer logistical ease and attrition to win their battles; humans prefer to end their battles swiftly with overwhelming firepower._

_This design philosophy also extends to their ships. The Magnetic Accelerator Cannon (MAC) is the primary weapon of their space vessels. While the details of the mechanics behind these weapons are deemed classified by the UNDF, public records note that the yield of these weapons range from megatons to teratons, depending on whether it is mounted on a ship or an orbital defense platform. The destructive power of an orbital defense platform allows it to effortlessly destroy even Citadel dreadnoughts, and even the weakest of their ships are able to deal a surprising amount of damage. However, due to their large mass and lack of Mass Effect drives, human ships are comparatively slow and less maneuverable. A human frigate is has roughly the same rate of acceleration and maneuverability as a Citadel cruiser, though they also have roughly the same firepower._

_While also lacking Element Zero-based technology, the weapons of the New Covenant were an unpleasant surprise for the Council. Almost the entirety of the Covenant arsenal fire blasts of magnetically constricted plasma bolts, or plasmoids. While Element Zero-based shields will break the forward momentum of an incoming plasma bolt upon impact, the heat of the plasma and the near-nonexistent distance between the shields and the object that they're protecting makes them functionally useless. Biotic barriers are also completely useless against plasma. That is not to say that they are completely ineffective against plasma bolts, however. Kinetic barrier can protect against plasma fire, but it requires that the field of protection be extended further away from the object of protection, compromising its ability to deflect kinetic weapons._

_This information proved valuable when Alliance forces used their respective weapons to great effect to drive out the turian occupational forces stationed on Shanxi. Marine rifle fire laid waste to the turians in the open while the plasma weapons of New Covenant proved devastating in the close quarters of towns and cities. Even now, mixed kinetic/plasma load outs are standard across all branches of the Alliance military._

_There were, however, fortunate disadvantages to plasma weaponry for the Citadel. With few exceptions, plasma is slow to fire and even more prone to overheating than Citadel weapons, and are generally inaccurate at ranges beyond 25 meters as their magnetic constriction decays. They are completely ineffective beyond 50 meters, the break off point where most plasma light arms can no longer constrict the plasmoid. However, human kinetic weapons often make up the difference at this range._

_See also: UNSC Weapons, Covenant Weapons, Kinetic Barriers_

Whew. Nearly five thousand words, my longest chapter yet.

Don't forget to review.


	3. Chapter 3

I don't own Halo or Mass Effect. Thanks to Dusel and Havoc-legionnaire for doing beta work, and a big thanks to Havoc for helping with the Codex entry.

* * *

The sound of the gunshot rang throughout the valley, prompting Shepard and her squad to pick up the pace towards the starport. When they arrived they found Nilhus' body lying on the ground, a puddle of dark blue blood oozing from the back of the turian's head. She also saw a red dot on her radar pointing to an unknown entity hiding somewhere behind the crates.

"You there, come out with your hands up!" Shepard shouted, raising her weapon in the direction of the radar blip.

"Okay, okay!" a panicked voice shouted from behind the boxes. "I'm coming up, just don't shoot me!" A pair of hands poked up, human, normal skin she noticed, followed by a body to reveal a middle-aged man in dirty work clothes and stubble on his face. "Shit, they sent a Spartan here?" he exclaimed upon seeing Shepard. "Man, things here must be worse than I thought."

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Shepard demanded, not lowering her weapon.

"M-my name's Powell, I work here," the man said nervously, his fear was clearly shown on his features and body language.

"How'd you survive the robots?" Ashley asked in suspicion. "You're the only civilian we've seen so far." At her questioning, Powell suddenly began to fidget nervously.

"Well, you see…" he began uncertainly.

"Talk!" Shepard snapped. Though by now her weapon had lowered, she marched up to the dock worker so that he could clearly see his reflection on her golden visor.

"Okay!" Powell said, flinching at her harsh tone and invasive proximity. "Working the docks can be a draining job, so sometimes I go off and take a few winks. I hide behind the crates so my supervisor can't catch me. I guess when…whatever those robots were came, they didn't notice me," he finished nervously.

"Let me get this straight," Kaidan said. "Your life was spared because you were _lazy_?" The Biotic laughed in disbelief. "I can't say I've ever heard that one before."

"So if you've been hiding here all this time, then you must know who's responsible for this, am I right?" Shepard asked, pointing at Nihlus' corpse. Powell immediately held up his hands defensively.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" he said, shaking his head. "You're not saying _I_ did that, are you? Because I didn't; it was another turian, Saren I think his name was. The two seemed to know each other." Powell shuddered as the memory returned to the forefront of his mind. "That Nihlus guy turned his back to him and Saren just whipped out a pistol and blew his brains out."

"This Saren character, where did he go?" Shepard asked, trying to regain Powell's attention.

"He went deeper into the colony," the dockworker said, pointing to a set of tram rails that led elsewhere. "I'll go call a car to take you there." As he ran off to do that, Shepard hailed the _Normandy_.

"_Normandy_, this is Shepard we've got a problem," she said. "The Prothean artifact's not where it's supposed to be and Jenkins and Nihlus are dead. We've got a witness here that says that Nihlus was executed by a turian named Saren."

"Did you say Saren? Damn it!" Anderson swore from the other end of the line. The Spartan raised her eyebrow behind her helmet at her commanding officer's exclamation, not affected by his cursing but intrigued by his apparent familiarity with the name. Who was this Saren, and why did Captain Anderson seem to know him? "This mission is going to hell in a hand basket, Shepard. Figure out what's going on down there fast."

"Understood, Captain, Shepard out," she confirmed before disconnecting the line. The questions would have to wait, she had more pressing matters on her plate right now anyway.

"Think this Saren guy's a terrorist of some sort, Commander?" Kaidan asked as he checked the ammunition in his gun.

"I don't know, it's possible," Shepard replied. "Captain Anderson seemed to recognize the name."

Stepping up to the edge of the track, the Spartan activated the zoom function integrated into her helmet with a thought and peered down the path to see the tram coming up towards them with several geth riding it, including one that towered above the others. Instead of wasting a shot to try and hit one of the synthetics in the head, Shepard deactivated the zoom and turned to her squad mates. "We've got enemy forces incoming, find some cover," she ordered as they ducked down behind some crates.

When the tram arrived its passengers stepped off the vehicle and into the starport. The giant of a geth was painted in black with a gold trim. Towering over its comrades at nearly three and a half meters in height the ground quaked with every step it took. Peeking around her cover to ensure that the behemoth's gaze was not on her, Shepard unclipped a plasma grenade and primed it.

Pitching it over her cover, the glowing blue orb struck the geth in the chest and immediately stuck itself to the surface. The synthetic being looked down at the glowing object attached to it but by the time it had processed what had happened, the grenade burst into an explosion of plasma, disintegrating the top half of the geth. Its smaller companions immediately turned towards the direction that the explosive had flown from and opened fire; Shepard ducked down to avoid the hail of gunfire that shredded through the fragile crates forcing her to seek a more durable shelter behind a sturdy metal shipping container. Ashley and Kaidan both popped out of their cover to unleash a blast from their overclocked plasma pistols, taking out two more enemies. As the geth turned to the new threat Shepard dashed to new cover behind a crate on the tram itself and tossed another grenade, this time a fragmentation grenade, very high. She fired at the cluster of robots with her assault rifle to lower their shields before the grenade detonated, destroying several more enemy combatants. By then, Ashley and Kaidan's plasma pistols had cooled down and cut down the survivors.

The air now polluted with the stench of burning synthetic alloys, the three soldiers reloaded their weapons and stepped onto the tram. Pressing a button on the control panel the transport sped forward to their destination and whatever surprises waited for them there.

* * *

Saren looked up at the Prothean beacon. Standing four meters high and emitting an ominous green glow that lightly distorted the air around it, a lesser mind would have been cautious or even fearful of it, but Saren knew better. He knew what information it contained and stepped up to it confidently. Saren felt the mysterious power of the beacon lift him off his feet and probe his mind. Suddenly, a flood of emotions and images poured into his brain.

_**Fire. Blood. Fear. Death. Machine. **_One horrifying image after the other flashed through the forefront of the traitor's mind with barely a second of delay._** Darkness. Fear. Death. Destruction, pain, monster, blood, catastrophe, death, conduit, Ilos. **_A star system flashed before his mind's eye, shrouded in a nebula, or was it an illusion? Something was hidden there, something important. The image quickly zoomed on the planet, Ilos, and from the darkness a frightening shape emerged.

_**REAPER.**_

Saren gasped as the beacon finished its transfer into his mind, dropping him like a stone. Even in his stunned state Saren managed to land on his feet, although he stumbled slightly on the landing. Shaking off his disorientation, the turian turned to a nearby geth trooper.

"Arm the charges," he growled. "I want all evidence of our presence erased." The geth nodded mutely and left to fulfill its orders. Having gotten what he came for, Saren stepped onto his hoverboard to fly back to his ship.

There was still much work left to be done.

* * *

The tram rumbled to a stop at its final destination and its three occupants quickly stepped off, guns at the ready, only to be shocked by the shape that was dwarfing the tram station, an enormous tower of metal that seemed to absorb all light that fell on it and expel an aura of foreboding.

"What the hell is that?" exclaimed Kaidan as he and his squadmates stared at the cylindrical shape that towered over them, beyond the grounds of the tram station.

"I don't know, but we'll worry about that later. Move out," Shepard said. Even though she tried to keep face in front of the soldiers that counted on her leadership, the Spartan could not hide the small quiver of fear in her voice. That had to be the ship that Ashley had described, the same Gunnery Chief that nodded mutely at her leader's words and raised her weapon again. _Later, deal with one problem at a time,_ she mentally chastised herself as she took a breath and calmed herself. She was a Spartan, and fear would not control her.

Peering around a corner, Shepard saw a lone geth tinkering with a large device. Quietly drawing her beam rifle she took aim. Apparently satisfied with its work, the geth stood up before having its head blown off by a neon-pink beam of energy. Lowering her weapon, Shepard dashed up to the geth's fallen body and kicked it away before inspecting the device that it was tampering with. Although it was a model that she did not recognize the two canisters of explosives and large blinking countdown were evidence enough that it was a bomb.

"Alenko, can you disarm this thing?" the Spartan demanded as her subordinate caught up to her.

"No problem, just give me a minute," Kaidan said as he pried off the front panel with his combat knife and began to search through the wires. Finding the appropriate wires he swiftly sliced through them, ending the bomb's countdown. "There, all finished!" he exclaimed as he stood up and dusted his knees off.

"That can't be the only one, so spread out!" Shepard ordered. She glanced at the timer, which read 3:53. "We've got three minutes and change, get moving!" she added as she ran forward. The two other soldiers caught up and then split off when they reached a break in the pathway. Ashley eventually found another bomb hiding in a corner, the timer reading just under over two minutes.

"Alright, I've found one," she said as she pried off the front like she had seen Kaidan do earlier. "Walk me through it," she added.

"Right, you need to pry off the front under the timer and look for the blue wires," Kaidan's voice filtered through her earpiece before giving off a strained grunt followed by a dull clank of metal; apparently he had also found another bomb. "You need to cut all the blue wires; do _not_ cut anything else." His voice held an edge of command that made her lick her lips out of nervousness, she did not want to get things wrong.

"Cut the blue wires, got it," Ashley confirmed before diving into the tangled mess of wiring. Finding and digging out four blue wires, she carefully sliced them in half with her knife, deactivating the bomb. "Bomb is down," she sighed, her head dipping to her chest in relief.

"Mine too," Kaidan added.

"I've found the last bomb," Shepard said from the other side of the bridge that was separating the second level of the station, Kaidan was with her as well though he was several meters behind her, still kneeling above the bomb. "But there are robots nearby; I can't get to it without them noticing me."

"Okay, whatever you do, Shepard, _do not let them shoot the bomb_," Kaidan said. "We don't know how stable these things are."

"Acknowledged," Shepard replied. Peeking around the corner, she saw that the group of geth troopers was clustered closely together. Taking a deep, calming breath, Shepard drew her beam rifle and sniped one in the head before charging the group, her body knocking them down like bowling pins. Swapping out her beam rifle for her assault rifle, Shepard pressed the muzzle of the weapon close to her enemies' bodies and shredded them with automatic gunfire. When her magazine emptied, she tossed it aside and snatched up one of the fallen geth's weapons, using it to rip through the survivors' shields and fragile bodies. When the last synthetic fell, she dashed to the bomb and looked at the display, it read 0:43 seconds.

Drawing her combat knife, Shepard wrenched the front panel off and began picking through the tangle of wires, ripping all the blue ones as she went. When she found the last wire and ripped it, the display died with twenty-one seconds left on the timer. Her feeling of relief was cut short by a loud, low rumbling sound that she felt in her bones. She turned around to see the enormous black squid-shaped ship rising up into the air.

"_Normandy_ this is Shepard, the enemy ship is attempting to escape!" she yelled into her radio.

"Acknowledged Shepard, moving to intercept," Joker replied.

"Negative, this thing's too big for the _Normandy_ to fight off, it'd be suicide!" Shepard argued. When the ship was little more than a black sliver in the sky, it suddenly disappeared with a boom that made her ears ring even with the sound protectors built into her helmet.

"Damn it!" Joker yelled from his seat on the _Normandy_. "The ship jumped into FTL before I could get a lock on it."

"Shepard, have you found the Prothean relic yet?" Anderson asked, taking over the 6omm.. The Spartan looked around her immediate area and saw a tall, thin pylon that matched Prothean architecture no less than thirty meters and one staircase down to an open sublevel of the tram station.

"I believe so, sir," she acknowledged. "It appears intact." By now, Kaidan and Ashley had caught up with the commander and began to patrol the area to root out any geth that may have been hiding in the corners.

"Excellent," Anderson said. "We'll be at your location for pick-up in five minutes, Anderson out."

The Prothean beacon glowed dimly, although no one paid much attention to it. However, when Kaidan walked too closely to it during one of his passes, the green aura flared up and he felt himself being drawn to it against his will.

"Alenko!" Shepard shouted as she dashed over to the struggling Biotic. Wrapping her arms around his waist she used her enhanced strength to roughly throw Kaidan aside and into Ashley's arms. Unfortunately, the beacon's pull turned its focus on Shepard and began to pull her closer. Despite being several kilograms heavier than Kaidan and possessing increased physical strength further augmented by her armor, she found herself unable to escape its grasp.

"Shepard!" Ashley yelled as she tried to help her commander, but was stopped by Kaidan.

"It's too dangerous!" he said as he held her back. "There's nothing we can do." The beacon's influence had lifted Shepard off her feet and, try as she might, she could not escape its grasp. Her struggles were halted by a sudden rush of words and images into her brain, but the images were blurry in her mind and the words more like guttural screams. A stream of reds, yellows and black flooded her vision as the images overwhelmed her, pain flooded in as a dull ache settled on her forehead and a burning sensation was left in eyes. _This was nothing like having a Smart AI in your head_, Shepard thought as she passed out. Just then the beacon exploded, the force throwing the Spartan back; fortunately, her armor protected her from any shrapnel.

"_Normandy_, this is Alenko, Shepard's down!" Kaidan yelled as he and Ashley rushed to their fallen commander. After he carefully pulled Shepard's helmet off, Kaidan took off a glove and pressed his finger against her neck.

"Lieutenant Alenko, this is Doctor Chakwas," the doctor's voice said through Kaidan's earpiece. "What's the Commander's status?"

"She's unconscious and her pulse is weak," Kaidan explained as he removed his helmet and held his head over hers, feeling her soft breaths tickling his ear. "Her breaths are shallow, but even," he continued.

"Understood, Lieutenant," Chakwas said. ""Keep her stable if there are any changes, we'll get there as soon as we can."

True to her word, the _Normandy_ arrived two minutes later, an emergency medical team that consisted of Dr. Chakwas and the _Normandy's _compliment of marines poured out of the ship with a gurney the moment the hangar bay doors opened. With three well-muscled Marines on each side of her they lifted Shepard's limp form up from the ground and gently deposited her onto the gurney, immediately rushing back to the ship, Ashley and Kaidan close behind. Once everyone had stepped on, the hangar doors closed and the _Normandy_ returned to space while Chakwas' team scrambled to get Shepard's armor off and inspect her for any injuries that would not have been seen before.

* * *

When Shepard regained consciousness she found herself in a sterile white and black room, the lights were set to low she noticed, most likely for comfort when she woke up. _How thoughtful_, she though with a smile. She looked down to her chest to see that she was no longer in her Spartan armor, but instead she only saw the thin shirt and pants she wore under her armor. Her rustling alerted Chakwas to her state; the doctor quickly typed something into her computer before she stood up from her desk and walked over to her patient's side.

"You gave us quite a scare there, Commander," the English woman chastised Shepard. "Luckily for you, there were no permanent injuries. In fact, except for your sudden lapse of unconsciousness, there were no physical problems at all. However, I did detect some unusual brain wave patterns that I'd like to investigate." The door hissed open behind her to allow Captain Anderson entry.

"I'm afraid that'll have to wait, Doctor," the dark-skinned man said. "Shepard, how are you feeling?" he asked his XO.

"Like crap…" she muttered succinctly, laying her head back down onto the pillow and placing a hand over her eyes. "…Sir," she added as an afterthought. Anderson chuckled and turned to Chakwas.

"Doctor Chakwas, could you give us a moment in private, please?" he asked.

"Of course, Captain," she replied and headed through the door.

"I received Lieutenant Alenko and Chief Williams' reports," Anderson began. "They both said that the Prothean beacon 'grabbed' you somehow before exploding. What happened back there?" Shepard sighed and shook her head lightly.

"To be honest sir, I don't really know," she admitted, pulling herself into a sitting position. "I was being pulled by some sort of force that I couldn't break out of. And then it…I guess it downloaded something into my brain." Shepard rubbed her forehead in a mixture of tiredness and frustration.

"Downloaded?" Anderson asked in confusion. "Downloaded what?"

"I don't know…" Shepard answered with a shrug. "…It's all just flashes. It's like someone took a slideshow and sped it up really fast: I can occasionally make out a shape, but it's too fast for me to tell." Anderson frowned at the news, but did not pursue the subject further.

"How are you holding up, Shepard?" he asked instead. The Spartan gave him a weary sigh in response.

"Not good, sir," she said with frustration, indicated by her clenched right fist. "The mission was a complete failure. Jenkins and Nihlus are dead, God knows how many colonists were killed, the beacon's destroyed and we've got this Saren person, whoever he is doing something in the shadows! How did the geth even know about the Beacon in the first place?" Anderson saw that this was eating away at the commander and sighed.

"What's done is done, Shepard, you can't change that," he tried to calm her with words. "I've forwarded the reports to Ambassador Udina and he'll try to get us an audience with the Council, but we're still about ten hours away. In the meantime, try to get some rest," he continued, his voice held both command and concern at the same time, she was touched.

"Yes sir," Shepard said loyally. Nodding in satisfaction, Anderson stood up and exited the medical bay, leaving her alone in the dark room. With a tired sigh, Shepard laid her head back down and closed her eyes to try and get some sleep but her mind was still plagued by the images forcefully downloaded into her mind and their elusive meaning.

* * *

_**CODEX 2.29 – CSV NORMANDY**_

_The first of her class, the CSV Normandy is a state-of-the-art prototype frigate jointly designed by the Systems Alliance and the Turian Hierarchy. The endeavor was an attempt to mend tensions between the two powers still festering from the First Contact War. While the turian engineers largely influenced the structural appearance of the ship, human and Covenant engineers focused on the internal workings. Ultimately, though, all major ship systems are a hybridization of two very different branches of technologies. If successful, the Normandy will be the first in a new classification of Fast-Stealth Frigates in the Alliance fleet._

_The Normandy's Tantalus drive core of is a unique prototype, a hybrid of two distinct branches of fusion power technology. Council ship reactors are catalyzed by sonoluminesence via element zero induced and utilizes inertial and dark energy confinement; this design has lower peak output but does not suffer from Bremsstrahlung and does not provide as steady an output thanks to its pulse reactions. Alliance ship reactors are dense plasma focus induced and magnetically constricted; this design has a much higher and steadier output, but suffers from significant loss from Bremsstrahlung. The two technologies together can achieve unparalleled efficiency and create enough power to operate a Citadel cruiser while retaining its small size. This also brings a new layer of safety redundancy as having two distinct methods of fusion containment allows for one to fail without catastrophic results; needless to say, the failure of one containment system does reduce power output and overall ship performance. Running at full power, the Normandy is the fastest ship in either fleets in superluminal travel and has a shorter recharge time for both its inertial suppression FTL drive and slip space drive._

_Primary sub-light propulsion is through its fusion torch thruster. Again, the inertial confinement/magnetic constriction hybrid technology allows for the Normandy's thrusters to achieve incredible thrust and efficiency. This makes the Normandy faster than all but the most stripped down and bare-bones frigates of the Citadel fleet. The secondary ion propulsion drives are used during stealth runs. The element zero core can momentarily manipulate propellant mass to increase momentum transfer, allowing the Normandy to stealthily use the otherwise useless ion propulsion drives while still retaining operational speed and moderate maneuverability._

_The Normandy's primary weapon is a spinal mounted plasma induction augmented Helical rail-cannon. Like its counterparts in the Alliance fleet, the augmented Helical cannon can be summed up as a coil gun crossed with a rail gun, with the strength of both and weakness of neither. The helical coils can transfer Lorentz acceleration whilst its coiling induces Gaussian acceleration. Plasma induction removes the need for the projectile to come into contact with the rails and greatly extends rail life. Secondary rails double the power by inducing a pulling force as well as a pushing force as dictated by the Lorentz equations. Projectiles of any size up to the bore can be launched and torpedoes can be hot launched out of the main gun._

_Further augmenting the main gun is the new inertial capacitance system. The main flaw of any electromagnetically-powered kinetic weapon is that either longer rails or coils or massive boosts in power are required to increase the kinetic energy of a projectile. The IC system solves this issue in a novel manner. Whereas Council mass accelerator weapons decrease the inertial mass of an object so as to make it travel quicker with less energy, the IC systems actually increase the projectile's inertial mass so that it may take longer to absorb energy emanating from the augmented helical rails. The effect is that the shell travels slowly down the main gun, absorbing massive amounts of energy until it leaves the mass effect field. Here, inertia itself can be considered as a battery or capacitor, storing kinetic energy as potential inertial energy. As the normal inertial mass is restored and Higgs coefficient returns to 1, the projectile increases in speed, but experiences no acceleration in the technical sense. Spatial manipulations reduce T in the force equations to zero and the concept of acceleration becomes meaningless. No inertial force is suffered even as the projectile's speed is spontaneously increased many folds. The use of this system does give a massive boost in firepower, but requires that the ship must align itself with the target for several long seconds as the projectile travels down the rails._

_In addition to the self-sharpening tungsten kinetic slugs, the kinetic fusion shells give the Normandy a multi-megaton scale punch. The KF shells contain small amounts of Uranium-235 and lithium deuteride along with a depleted uranium tamper. Utilizing the extreme negative impulse from relativistic impact upon its target, the shell's warhead achieves supercriticality and detonates. This creates a point blank range thermonuclear detonation with a plasma stream with relativistic momentum. The effective use of KF shells requires the use of the inertial capacitance system._

_Secondary long range weapons systems include a battery of disruptor and plasma explosive torpedoes. These can be used in stealth attacks and be cold launched from torpedo tubes or hot launched right of the main gun for greater speed. They could also be deployed as mines. _

_ The primary short range weapon of the Normandy is a plasma cutter turret mounted on the underside of the hull. Like all plasma turrets of the Alliance fleet, the Normandy's turret is descended from the prototype design created by the legendary AI Cortana. It uses reactor plasma shunted into a magnetic corridor leading to its target and slicing it to pieces rather than simply melting through as a plasma torpedo does. The Normandy's plasma stream cutter has a maximum range of only fifteen kilometers, but its effects cannot be stopped by element zero kinetic barriers. Though the plasma would initially lose its momentum against the element zero shields, it would be kept pressured against the barrier by the magnetic constriction then slow enough for it to pass through and burn the armor and hull. Needless to say, using the plasma weapon makes the Normandy visible to thermal and EM sensor._

_The Normandy's active defense system is an array of six GARDIAN laser turrets: two mounted on both the port and starboard sides and one on the top and bottom._

_In terms of passive defense, the Normandy sports layers of metal matrix composite Titanium-B, amorphous Titanium-C metal glass, ablative refractive ceramics and hollow spacing to defeat kinetics and plasma weapons. The honeycombed Titanium-C hull is capable of incredible strength and ductility, allowing it to bend to absorb force._

_Outside of the armor, the Normandy sports a new prototype Mk 21 hybrid shield. Council kinetic barrier technology is fused with Alliance cold plasma shield technology for a new shield with the strength of both. Element zero kinetic barriers operate by maintaining a field of dark energy that instantly intercepts fast moving objects. Kinetic barriers, however, suffers from high energy direction cost, making it possible to stop high powered slugs without much difficulty while being easily stripped by volleys of low energy hits. The biggest weakness is that it provides no defense against directed energy weapons. Cold plasma shields operate by maintaining a viscous field of cold plasma that incoming fire blunts against; it is more a second layer of armor than a shield and much more passive than kinetic barriers. It is also capable of defending against directed energy weapons by absorbing the energy into the plasma, rendering it more exciting and requiring an input of energy from the generator to restore fluid viscosity. The plasma shield is capable of absorbing low and moderate energy kinetic impacts with ease, but struggles against high energy impacts as armor does. The hybrid shield operates primarily as a plasma shield impregnated with dark energy. When the plasma field absorbs an impact, the dark energy field reinforces the impact site by increasing the plasma's inertia and viscosity while imparting a counter force against the impacting object. The result is a hybrid active/passive defense granting complete protection against kinetic, energy, and mass manipulation weapons that lessening the burden on both systems by playing to their strengths._

_Unknowns to the public, though is the Normandy's most revolutionary technology: its stealth system. Three distinct methods of detection had to be countered: thermal, electromagnetic, and gravitational. Alliance engineers developed a new method of thermal containment during stealth cruising and to expelling the excess heat through microscopically small slipspace portals, allowing it to remain invisible to thermal sensors indefinitely. Alliance cold plasma shielding technology can defeat all forms of electromagnetic scanning by absorbing all electromagnetic emissions stronger than background radiation. The element zero core's dark energy manipulation neutralizes the already difficult method of gravitational detection._

_Now that the Normandy has been made public, however, some individuals who worked on the project – almost the entirety of which are humans – have expressed unhappiness with the final design. A common complaint is the size of the vessel. At approximately 80 meters long, the Normandy is well within the parameters of a frigate under Citadel ship classifications; however, this is only roughly 17 percent of the size of a standard UNSC frigate, something that caused frustration amongst human engineers. Another annoyance from the humans was the refusal to allow the integration of an on-board Artificial Intelligence, a standard component for Systems Alliance vessels but deemed illegal under Citadel law. __In a gesture of good faith, the Council observed the AI ban for the Normandy alone__.

* * *

_

I hope that you enjoyed that. And to all my American readers, have a happy Independence Day! Try not to set anything on fire.

And don't forget to review.


	4. Chapter 4

I am currently recovering from getting my wisdom teeth extracted. The swelling's pretty much gone, but my jaw is still a bit sore. On the bright side, I got Starcraft II as an early b-day present, yay!

I don't own Halo or Mass Effect. Thanks to Dusel and Havoc-legionnaire for doing the beta work.

* * *

"Beat it!" the turian Citadel Security officer snapped in annoyance. His foul mood had started when he had been pulled into duty on his day off, and his temperament was only being worsened by the quarian bothering him about something she needed to see the Council about. _Like that__'__s going to happe__n,_ he thought with a mental scoff.

"But Officer, you don't understand," the annoying quarian pleaded. "It is imperative that I see the Council! This could be a matter of galactic security!" The turian resisted the urge to flap his mandibles in irritation at her melodramatic statement.

"I said _beat it_, before I have you arrested for harassing a C-Sec officer!" he growled, his hand drifting towards the pistol hanging from his hip. Realizing that it would be futile to argue with him further the quarian bowed her head in defeat.

"Yes, officer, sorry…" she muttered before turning and leaving. Once she had put a fair amount of distance between her and the C-Sec officer, the quarian growled in frustration and flexed her fingers as if contemplating wrapping them around someone's throat as she mentally replayed the events that had led her here.

A few days before, she stumbled across a seemingly lost patrol party of geth on a planet that had a name so hard to pronounce she didn't even bother putting down in her Omni-tool, the patrol had landed on the planet to enact repairs, most likely from a micro-meteor impact. After taking down all but one she carefully extracted its memory core before it deleted itself. Instead of any insights into their development or better yet, a reason why they were outside Geth space, she found an audio file of a conversation that took place at approximately one week before. It had two speakers, one that could have been either a human woman or and asari as well as one that she recognized as a turian. They were talking about Protheans and something called "Reapers" but she did not recognize the name nor particularly cared. She hoped that bringing evidence of a turian and another party collaborating with the geth would finally bring some influence and respect to the Migrant Fleet as well as open up more diplomatic options for the Conclave. Unfortunately, that was not as easy a task as it had sounded.

Sighing, the quarian made her way to the shuttle station and hailed a car to take her to the night club Chora's Den. Her funds were running low and all other options were exhausted; she just hoped that the information that she was giving would eventually find itself in the right hands.

* * *

Several hours earlier in the outer edges of the Widow Nebula, a Mass Relay hummed to life before the _Normandy_ popped into existence, zooming past the enormous and ancient machine into the beautiful purple nebula.

"Eighteen hundred kay drift, lights green across the board…looks like we're good," Joker said as he scanned across the numerous figures displayed in front of him. "We'll reach the Citadel in about five minutes," he continued; behind him stood Shepard, Ashley and Kaidan, all watching out the window, their view currently obscured by thick pink clouds of space dust.

"Ever seen the Citadel before, Chief?" Kaidan asked conversationally.

"Can't say I have," Ashley responded. "I hear it's supposed to be quite a sight to see, though."

"It is," Kaidan agreed. "I've heard that as far as technological marvels go, the Citadel's right up there with the Halos. Without being a weapon of mass genocide, of course." he added jokingly with a smile. Ashley nodded in agreement while Shepard did not comment.

The clouds finally parted to reveal their destination: The Citadel, an artificial city that stretched over forty kilometers, its five arms reaching outward like the fingers of an enormous mechanical hand. Ships buzzed in and out of it like bees from a hive, the largest of which was the _Destiny Ascension_, a diamond-shaped Asari dreadnought, the flagship of the Citadel fleet.

"Wow…" Ashley said in wonder as they flew past it, " That thing is huge!" Although there were many ships in the Alliance fleet that matched or dwarfed the _Ascension_, the knowledge did not diminish the feeling of awe at seeing such an enormous and grandeur vessel.

"Eh, I've seen bigger," Joker grunted with an unimpressed shrug. "Besides, size isn't everything…" he continued as flew into the structure. "Citadel Control, this is _Normandy_, requesting permission to dock," he spoke into the ship's communicator.

"Acknowledged, _Normandy_," a female voice replied. "You are cleared to land at dock Four-Two-Two," she continued.

"Confirmed, _Normandy_ out," Joker said as he cut the feed. Compensating for the rotation of the station itself, Joker maneuvered himself into the docking platform located in one of the Wards of the Citadel. Powerful electromagnets clamped firmly yet incredibly gently onto the _Normandy__'__s_ sides while a sealed walkway extended to attach to the ship's airlock.

Banned from bringing in automatic weapons under Citadel law, Shepard and her subordinates stepped into the decontamination chamber with only their armor and M6E service pistols. The four humans waited patiently as the room was filled with disinfectant mist and the pathogen-killing laser swept over them. Finally deeming them to be clean the _Normandy__'__s_ airlock opened with a hiss to release its occupants out into the Citadel.

With the _Normandy_ being the only occupant of that particular, private for Alliance use only docking bay the area was surprisingly empty, save for a few dock workers as well as a couple of Keepers, the silent and mysterious insectoid caretakers of the Citadel.

The four Alliance personnel easily passed through the C-Sec checkpoint and were on their way to the elevator that would take them to the Presidium when a faint ringing came from Anderson's pocket. He reached in and pulled out a thin device holding it up to his ear.

"Anderson," the dark-skinned man said. The three soldiers heard a man's voice on the other end, but it was too muffled to make out what he was saying. "Alright, we're on our way." Ending the call and sliding the communication device back into his pocket Anderson turned to his subordinates. "That was Ambassador Udina, he said the meeting is in ten minutes." They reached a rapid transit station and the four quickly climbed into a car, designating their destination as the Presidium. The ride was a short one thanks to the Element Zero-driven vehicle which reached its destination on its own.

After arriving at the Presidium with only five minutes to spare, Anderson and his crew hurried to the elevator that would take them to the Council's chambers at the top of the Presidium Tower. As the elevator continued its journey upwards, Anderson stared anxiously at his watch, the seconds ticking by slowly; even though the elevator traveled at a fairly decent speed it still took several minutes to cover the kilometer of distance between the base of the Presidium and the top of the tower, an agonizingly long time when one was in a hurry. Finally, after several minutes of listening to news reports and advertisements about an adaptation of _Hamlet_ starring an all-elcor cast, the elevator's doors opened with a soft "ding!" and Anderson practically dashed out of the structure.

On their way, the four passed by two turians arguing, although they walked by too fast to hear anything about it other than one was named Vakarian and that the argument involved Saren. When they reached the podium, they heard the sound of Udina's voice yelling at the Council.

"This is an outrage!" he snarled, pointing an accusatory finger at the Council. "We wouldn't even be having this conversation if this happened to a turian colony!" Behind him, Covenant ambassador 'Tarum nodded in silent agreement.

"The turians would not build a colony on the edge of the Terminus Systems!" the turian councilor retorted; despite his restrained tone, it was easy to tell that he was agitated by Udina's acquisitions. "Furthermore, we still need to discuss the questionable circumstances surrounding the death of Operative Kryik," he continued. Before Udina could retort, the asari councilor interrupted.

"Suspicious though his death may be, Operative Kryik's death is not the subject of this meeting," she said. "Ambassador Udina, you said that you had evidence concerning Operative Saren's involvement in the attack. What evidence is this?" she asked.

"We have an eyewitness testimony stating that Saren was working alongside the geth, and that he assassinated Nihlus Kryik!" Udina replied heatedly.

"A single eyewitness account from a terrified, possibly delusional dock worker," the salarian councilor pointed out. "Do you have any security footage to corroborate this wild claim of his?" he asked. Udina resisted the urge to grind his teeth in frustration as he slowly released his answer.

"No, all security footage was destroyed in the attack…" he ground out.

"Then this so-called 'evidence' of yours is flimsy at best, inadmissible at worst," the salarian councilor concluded.

"What evidence we _do_ have, however, is a destroyed Prothean artifact and a dead Citadel Spectre on human soil!" the turian councilor pointed out.

"You can't honestly think that _we_ had something to do with that?" Udina shouted in outrage. The turian was about to answer when he was cut off by the asari councilor.

"No, we do not," she said, sparing a moment to glare at her colleague. "While admittedly they are suspicious, both events could have easily been the result of the geth attack. This warrants further investigation, but now is not the time for this discussion. Ambassador, do you have any further evidence to present?" she asked. Udina turned to the four new arrivals behind him, who shook their heads in denial. Sighing in defeat, he turned back to the Council.

"No," Udina admitted sourly.

"Then I have no choice but to dismiss this claim," the asari councilor said with a tone of finality. "This meeting is concluded." As the three councilors as well as those who gathered to watch the proceedings began to leave Udina gave a weary sigh and turned to the people assembled behind him.

"Well, that went well," he noted bitterly.

"So that's it?" Ashley asked. "Saren wipes out an entire colony and we sit here and do _nothing_?"

"There's nothing we _can_ do," Udina said. "The Council threw out the only evidence we had, and if we just charge in after Saren, the Council would throw us out!" While Ashley muttered under her breath that the Alliance could beat the Citadel fleets, the sangheili ambassador spoke up.

"The best that we can hope for is to find evidence of Saren committing a similar crime and work from there," he rumbled.

"What about that Vakarian guy we passed on the way here?" Kaidan suggested. "He was arguing with somebody about Saren, maybe he has something on him that we can use."

"But how would we find him?" Shepard asked. "He was wearing a C-Sec uniform and I doubt that they're just going to tell us where one of their officers is just because we asked." Udina considered the possibility.

"Perhaps," he muttered half to himself. "I think I know someone who may know where this Mister Vakarian is," he continued. Anderson looked at the ambassador in surprise.

"You don't mean Harkin?" he exclaimed. "The man's a disaster waiting to happen."

"Sir?" Shepard asked, raising an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Harkin is, or rather _was_ a human member of C-Sec," Anderson explained. "The man is a disgusting bigot, the worst that humanity has to offer without actually breaking any laws. He was recently put on indefinite suspension, he tended to visit a place called Chora's Den in the Wards more often than he should have; you might find him there," he continued, a sour expression on his face.

"There is another option, although I'm not eager to suggest it," Udina said. "I've heard whispers of an agent of the Shadow Broker in the Presidium. From what I've heard, it's the volus banker Barla Von."

"I've heard of the Shadow Broker," Kaidan said. "Isn't he supposed to be some kind of intergalactic information dealer?"

"The best, from what I've heard," Anderson responded. "He can get you anything for the right price. I'm not thrilled about it, but these seem to be our only two options," he added.

"Then we'll just have to explore both then," Shepard said. "Perhaps we'll get lucky and find something."

"Good luck to you then, Shepard," Anderson said, saluting the commander.

"And in the meantime, I'll be in my office trying to salvage this situation," Udina muttered as he and 'Tarum stepped around the others to return to their respective Embassies. No words were exchanged between the four Alliance personnel during the tediously slow elevator ride back down to the Presidium. Bidding Anderson farewell, the three soldiers began to formulate their plan of action.

"So Commander, what's the plan? Do we hit Chora's Den or this Barla Von guy first?" Kaidan asked as they stepped on the white tiles of the Presidium, Rapid Transit vehicles zoomed overhead and a throng of different beings mulled around and mingled.

"It'd probably be best if we did both at the same time," Shepard replied. "If we split up, we can gather information faster. Williams, you—" she began before being interrupted by a voice behind her.

"Shepard?" a deep, gravelly voice inquired. The Spartan turned around to see a sangheili dressed in polished orange armor standing several meters away from her.

"Ket 'Radav, is that you?" Shepard asked incredulously. With a laugh, she stepped up to the alien and shook his hand before wrapping him in an embrace. Both Ashley and Kaidan confusedly looked upon the odd scene of their normally collected commander engaging in such a fit of emotion with an alien almost twice her height. After releasing her embrace, Shepard looked over her friend, seemingly oblivious to her companions' presence. "Officer now, huh?" she asked. "Does this mean that they've finally managed to chain you to a desk?" Ket's mandibles flared outwards and parted slightly, the sangheili equivalent of a grin.

"No; it would take the Arbiter himself cutting off my right hand and both feet before that happens," he said. Looking up as if noticing Ashley and Kaidan for the first time, he continued, "Who are your companions?" Realizing that she had forgotten about them, Shepard stepped back and introduced them.

"Ket, this is Chief Ashley Williams and Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, they fought with me on Eden Prime," she said. Turning to Ket, she continued, "This is Officer Ket 'Radav, we served together way back." Both soldiers saluted the sangheili, who returned it with a salute of his own. "So Ket, what brings you down here?" she asked as she started walking away from the elevator and towards the railings around the Presidium's water reservoirs, the others following her.

"I was summoned by Ambassador 'Tarum," Ket explained, standing up a bit straighter while his eyes scanned the lower level of the Presidium below them.

"Weird," Shepard quipped. "He didn't say anything when we saw him earlier." Ket responded with a shrug of ignorance.

"He said that you were involved in an incident and that I may be able to help," the sangheili said.

"'Incident' is putting it mildly," Shepard deadpanned. She quickly apprised Ket of the events that had transpired recently.

"I see," Ket said. "I will help you in any way I can," he offered.

"Thanks, I appreciate it," Shepard said. "Anyway, as I was saying. Williams, you and I will go check out Chora's Den and see what you can get out of Harkin. Ket and Alenko will pay this Barla Von a visit."

"Yes ma'am," Ashley said, although there was a distinct lack of enthusiasm in her voice. The two women left to get a Rapid Transit car to take them down to the lower Wards; meanwhile, Kaidan and his new sangheili companion headed towards the banking district across the reservoir to find their quarry.

* * *

The ride to Chora's Den was quiet and uneventful, Ashley and Shepard made their way to the nightclub, the sounds of traffic mingling with the loud, thumping music emanating from the place.

"Gentlemen's club huh?" chuckled Shepard while eyeing the large neon sign of a clearly human woman leaning back on her hands.

"No matter on what planet or star-cluster you're on, men are still pigs…" muttered the Gunnery Chief, much to Shepard's amusement.

Opening the doors to enter the Den itself, the two were momentarily overwhelmed by the loud techno music and flashing lights. Patrons of many races were occupying the club in various states of inebriation, making wolf whistles and cheers at the human and asari dancers gyrating around poles or on elevated platforms.

At the far end of the club, two krogan seemed to be arguing. One seemed to be the bouncer of the establishment as he had his back firmly against a door while the other wore blood-red combat armor, numerous scars and scorch marks testifying to the suit's extensive use. Shepard faintly heard them speaking about someone named "Fist" but she was too far away and the music too loud for her to properly eavesdrop. Whatever the bouncer had said to the mercenary seemed to upset the latter, who stormed off with his face twisted in displeasure, barely avoiding bumping into Shepard.

"Men of all races come here from all over the galaxy to watch half-naked women shake their asses on a stage," Ashley noted dryly, shaking her head as she did so. "I don't know if I should find that funny or sad." Shepard chuckled softly as she stepped up to the bar, where an asari was tending.

"I'm looking for Harkin, have you seen him?" Shepard asked casually. The bartender's face took on an appearance of disgust.

"Yeah, he's over there," the blue alien said, pointing to a table near the back of the club. Thanking her, Shepard signaled Ashley to follow her to the table. There sat a middle-aged man with cropped hair and a scruffy beard holding a half-drunk glass of whiskey in his hand; he already looked partially wasted.

"Harkin, I presume?" Shepard asked, sitting herself in the chair across from Harkin.

"Whuddya want?" the man muttered.

"I'm looking for someone," Shepard continued. "A turian C-Sec officer named Vakarian. Know him?" she continued. Harkin laughed as if she had just told him a hilarious joke.

"Vakarian? Yeah, I know 'im," he growled, tipping back his drink. "What's it to ya?"

"He may have information I need," Shepard said evasively. "Could you tell me where he is?" Harkin scratched his chin as he considered her request.

"Maybe," he said. "Maybe I'll tell you if you show me what's under that armor of yours, hon," he continued with a lecherous grin. Shepard smiled in return; if Harkin had been sober, he might have noticed that her smile was not one of humor but of devilish intent.

"I've heard your offer, Mister Harkin," the Spartan said, "now here is mine." Harkin knocked over his glass, spilling his drink over the table and released the air in his lungs in a wheezing gasp as he felt a steel-plated foot forcefully plant itself into his groin. "Tell me where I can find Vakarian, and I won't crush your family jewels," she proposed, the devilish grin never leaving her face. Harkin's face contorted in pain as he ground out his answer.

"Last I heard, he was helping some bleedin' heart doc," he hissed through gritted teeth. "She has a clinic in the Wards, near the C-Sec academy." He gasped in relief as he felt the foot withdrew from his sensitive parts and flopped onto the table, uncaring that the entire front of his shirt was now soaked with his spilled drink.

"I appreciate your cooperation, Mister Harkin," Shepard said as she stood up.

"Screw you, bitch," Harkin snarled. Shrugging uncaringly, Shepard left the nightclub, Ashley close behind, a megawatt smile spread across her face.

* * *

Meanwhile, Kaidan and Ket were searching for Barla Von. According to bystanders there was only one bank in the local shopping center, but the lack of identifying markers made the building difficult for them to locate, or as they found out later the signs were interactive and one had to activate them to get directions, they thought the graffiti looking markings were décor for the Presidium. Eventually they had found and entered the bank, currently occupied only by the target of their interest.

"Welcome," the volus greeted, his words punctuated by sharp hisses as ammonia-based atmosphere was pumped into the rotund creature's lungs. "How can I help you two gentlemen today?"

"I've been looking for someone of your services," Kaidan said as he sat down across from Von.

"Really?" he replied with intrigue. "I'm sorry, Earth-Clan, but I'm afraid my rates are a bit above your pay grade."

"I'm not looking to make an account," Kaidan clarified. "I'm here for information."

"Is that right?" Von asked. "What sort of information?"

"Anything you have on a Spectre named Saren," Kaidan said. This seemed to pique Von's interest.

"Saren, eh?" he muttered, tapping his finger to his mouthpiece in thought. "I don't know anything personally, but I know someone who does. Do you know of a man named Fist?" Von asked. "He runs the nightclub Chora's Den," he added when Kaidan shook his head.

"Keep going," Kaidan said.

"Fist is really an agent of the Shadow Broker," Von continued. "Or rather, _was_ an agent. Recently he seems to have thrown his lot in with this Saren fellow. He may know something; if he refuses to talk, I would not advise against more…persuasive techniques," he said darkly.

"How much will this information cost us?" Ket asked, speaking for the first time since they arrived. Von turned his attention to the towering alien.

"Normally, this information would be quite costly, Sanghelios-Clan," the volus said. "However, Fist betrayed the Shadow Broker, and he does not take kindly to betrayal. Consider this one on the house." Standing up and thanking the volus, Kaidan and Ket left the bank and contacted Shepard but before they could Barla Von's distorted voice came from the door.

"Oh and you might want to hurry, the Shadow Broker has already sent a krogan to take care of Fist…permanently." Halting for only a second the duo looked at each other as the door behind them automatically shut and with a small frown the lieutenant contacted his superior officer.

"Commander, we have a lead," Kaidan said. "A guy named Fist who runs Chora's Den seems to be working with Saren."

"_Chora__'__s Den? Didn__'__t we just come from there?__"_ Ashley asked, frustration lacing her voice.

"_Excellent work, Alenko,__"_ Shepard said_. __"__We__'__re currently chasing down a lead higher in the Wards. We__'__ll rendezvous at the C-Sec academy.__"_

"Understood, and Commander, the Shadow Broker has decided to send someone after Fist, thought you should know, Alenko out," Kaidan acknowledged. Turning to Ket, he said, "Looks like we're catching a ride."

* * *

After landing in the Upper Wards, Shepard checked the Rapid Transit terminal to determine the location of the clinic and led the way to it. The two women found the clinic easily enough, but when the doors opened they saw six men inside, all human, one of whom was threatening a female doctor with a handgun. When he saw the two intruders the apparent leader pulled the woman in front of him as a shield while his companions drew their weapons, the two soldiers following suit. In her peripheral vision, Shepard saw a turian in blue armor crouching behind a desk, holding up a digit to its mouth in the universal gesture for silence.

"Who the hell are you?" the leader yelled instinctively. A moment later however, he seemed to recognize the armor that Shepard was wearing. "A Spartan? Oh shit, what the fu—?" he screamed, but his curse was cut short when the turian popped out from its cover and fired a single shot, slugging the hostage taker between the eyes. The doctor fell to the floor with a scream while gunfire erupted all around her as the criminals took cover behind medical beds and equipment containers. The turian killed another man with three shots to the chest who had been too cocky when he jumped from cover to take a shot, the dying man firing into the ceiling as his hand instinctively clenched around his gun's trigger. Ashley switched her pistol to burst-fire mode and squeezed the trigger, quickly firing two 12.7 millimeter bullets into one man's chest. Ashley switched targets and pumped another two bullets into the next thug. Shepard fired at the nearest target, he was the one hiding ineffectively behind a crate, a shower of gore erupting from the back of the man's head as the bullet penetrated his skull. The last man desperately fired at Shepard, missing both times; she fired two bullets into the man's chest, obliterating his heart.

The entire battle lasted six seconds, with only three shots fired from the enemy, all of them missing their targets.

"Are you alright, Doctor Michel?" The turian asked as he helped the doctor to her feet. She was clearly distraught and close to panic though seeing as she was now safe she began to breathe more steadily.

"Yes, Garrus, I'm fine," the woman said with a French accent. "I think," she added faintly as she surveyed the carnage behind her. Satisfied that the doctor was unharmed, the turian turned to Shepard.

"Thanks for the distraction," he said. "I'm not sure if I could have pulled it off without you."

"You Vakarian?" Shepard asked as she placed her pistol back onto its magnetic holster. The turian nodded, expecting a compliment for his impeccable aim or at the very least a begrudging "not bad." What he did not expect was for the short, redheaded woman to suddenly start shouting at him. "What the hell were you thinking, pulling a stunt like that?" she yelled, the outrage evident in her tone. "You could have shot the hostage!"

"No really, it's alright," Doctor Michel insisted. "Garrus is a friend; he wouldn't have taken the shot if there was a chance that he would have hurt me." Shepard's rage seemed to deflate somewhat at the doctor's words, although she still sent withering glares at the turian.

"Is there any particular reason you're here, Miss…" Garrus asked.

"Shepard," the Spartan introduced herself. "I'm looking for you, actually. I'm trying to bring down Saren, and it sounded like you had something on him."

"So _you__'__re_ that human who tried to get the Council to depose Saren," he said, realization dawning on the turian. "Unfortunately, I don't have anything on him," he admitted sullenly. "I always had a feeling that Saren was up to no good, but Spectres are nigh-untouchable by law enforcement; anything he touches or even breathes upon is classified." Shaking his head, Garrus looked at Shepard directly in the eye. "If you're going to take down Saren, I want in," he announced.

"Ma'am, it might be a good idea to have a friendly C-Sec on our side in case things get hairy," Ashley whispered to her commander.

"I agree," Shepard whispered back before turning her attention back to the C-Sec officer in question. "Alright, Mister Vakarian, you're in," she said, holding out her hand in invitation.

"Thank you," Garrus said, taking the offered hand. "And the name's Garrus," he added.

"Alright, Garrus," Shepard noted. "However, no more of that cowboy stuff. When I give you an order, I expect you to follow it."

"It won't be a problem," Garrus assured her. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to call someone to clean up this mess." Turning away from his newfound allies, the turian conjured the orange holographic omni-tool around his forearm and dialed several buttons, calling whomever he would task to clean up the corpses. A few minutes later, a team of C-Sec investigators came in, giving Shepard and her crew the cue to leave. Following Garrus' direction, the group eventually found themselves at the C-Sec academy where Kaidan and Ket were waiting for them.

"Who is this?" the sangheili asked with a nod towards Garrus.

"Garrus Vakarian, C-Sec officer," Shepard introduced. Waving to her other companions, she continued, "Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko and Officer Ket 'Radav."

"Pleasure," Garrus said simply, shaking the two soldiers' hands.

"Likewise," Kaidan replied. "So, what's the plan now, Commander?"

"Now, we go find this Fist guy and have a little chat with him," Shepard said. "Hopefully, what he has to say will end this mad chase," she added darkly. Her dark mood was interrupted by Ashley tapping on her shoulder.

"Commander, isn't that the krogan from Chora's Den?" she asked, pointing away from them. Shepard followed the finger's direction to see a figure in familiar red armor. "It sounded like he was looking for Fist too; maybe he's the bounty hunter the Shadow Broker sent."

"Possibly," Shepard half-agreed. Looking up, she saw Ket's eyes narrowed in displeasure. "Ket, I know you don't exactly think highly of the krogan, but we need to chase down any lead we have." The sangheili's mandibles clenched tightly, but he eventually nodded in acceptance. The Spartan walked up to the krogan, who seemed to be arguing with a C-Sec officer, a turian who was backed up by a pair a human and another turian

"Damn it, Wrex, you can't keep harassing Fist like this!" the turian officer exclaimed. "Do you _want_ to be arrested?" he continued in exasperation. The krogan narrowed its crimson eyes at the officer.

"I'd like to see you try," Wrex growled. The turian was obviously frightened by the krogan's imposing figure, but kept his composure.

"Just try not to get in any more trouble, Wrex," he sighed as he walked away. With a snort, Wrex turned to leave only to find himself facing a female human wearing dull green armor.

"What do you want, human?" the krogan grunted. He had to give the woman credit; she did not seem intimidated by him like most people he met.

"I heard you were looking for Fist," she said. "I happen to be looking for him as well. Perhaps we can help each other out." Wrex pondered her proposal while she crossed her arms, tapping her fingers on one arm expectantly.

"What do you need Fist for?" he finally asked.

"He may have information that I need," she replied vaguely. "What about you?" she asked, though she already knew why.

"He pissed off someone very important," the krogan responded equally vaguely, "someone who hired me to…take care of him." He saw a flash of disapproval in the woman's eyes, but dismissed it; it did not matter to him what others thought of his profession.

"I can't say that I'm comfortable looking for a man while bringing his executioner," she finally said; Wrex shrugged in disinterest. "But I may need the additional manpower, so how 'bout this: You can have him _after_ I'm finished with him and not a moment before. Break our agreement, and you'll have so many holes in you a hurricane wouldn't knock you down," she said, holding out a hand. "So, do we have a deal?" _Have to give this human credit_, the krogan thought to himself with an amused snort, _she__'__s got quite a quad on her to threaten me to my face_.

"Alright, human," he rumbled, taking the offered hand in his own. "You've got yourself a deal. Name's Wrex," he continued.

"Commander Shepard," the Spartan replied. "Now let's go, before Fist catches on to us," she added, heading back to her group. As Wrex approached, Ket's eyes narrowed at the krogan, but the sangheili remained silent. After quick muttered introductions to get everybody familiar to each other, the ragtag crew left for Chora's Den. After they left, a salarian C-Sec officer used his personal line to place a call.

"We've got a problem," the gangly alien said. "I need to talk to Fist."

* * *

"So…what was Ket's problem with Wrex?" Kaidan asked. Two Rapid Transit cars had to be called to ferry Shepard and her crew down to the lower Wards.

"In the eyes of the sangheili, the krogan combine the mercenary tendencies of the Jackals and the psychotic bloodlust of the Brutes," Shepard explained as she inspected her weapon. "Basically, they're walking reminders of half the things wrong in the old Covenant." Kaidan wanted to ask more, but the Spartan gave him a pointed look that said that she did not want to discuss the issue further, and so he fell silent. The cars eventually deposited them around the street from the nightclub. Everyone drew their pistols except Wrex, who pulled out a boxy Katana shotgun.

"We don't know what kind of firepower these guys are packing, so keep sharp," Shepard warned before turning the corner. On the catwalk leading to Chora's Den, there were two turians, apparently standing guard.

"It's them, kill 'em!" one turian shouted to his companion as he drew his weapon and fired, his partner doing the same. Shepard and her human companions along with Garrus ducked behind the railings while Ket and Wrex hid behind a wall. Shepard stood up and fired at the first assailant. A blue aura flared around the turian as the bullet impacted harmlessly against his kinetic barrier. However, such a barrier did not last much longer when five more weapons were brought to bear on it, overwhelming it and shredding the turian beneath it. Moments later, the second guard met the same fate. Ejecting her half-spent magazine and slapping in a fresh one, she and Garrus ran ahead and stood on either side of the entrance to the nightclub, the others standing behind Shepard. The Spartan waved her hand in front of the door to open it, welcoming a hail of gunfire as the occupants fired wildly at the opened door from within the club.

"They seem excited," Garrus said in a deadpan tone as he and the Spartan had their backs flat against the wall next to the door.

"Vakarian and I will provide cover fire," Shepard said, ignoring Garrus' comment. "The rest of you find cover ASAP on three: One…two…three!" Waving her hand in front of the door again, both Garrus and Shepard fired blindly into the club while the others ducked down under their line of fire and ran inside. After the rest had entered, Shepard and Garrus dove inside and dashed for cover. Benches and tables had been overturned to be used as makeshift cover and some thugs hid behind the bar as well. The club's music had been turned off and its dancers and patrons sent away. Groans of pain as well as the expanding puddle of dark-blue blood spreading across the floor was evidence that either Shepard or Garrus had managed to hit someone by luck during their suppression.

Explosions echoed throughout the Den as gunfire was exchanged from both sides, from the pops of the micro-round pistols wielded by Garrus and the thugs to the thunderous roar of Wrex's shotgun. The krogan bouncer held a shotgun of his own and prepared to fire, but a chair biotically thrown by Kaidan threw off the reptilian alien's aim at the last second, accidentally shooting one of his companions in the back. Soon the krogan joined his fallen companions, nearly a dozen explosive-tipped rounds embedded in his face and chest.

Within five minutes, all the assailants had been neutralized. Craters from gunfire peppered the walls along with blood spatter. The ground was littered with empty shell casings and red-hot heat sinks, some hissing and sizzling as they came in contact with pools of blood.

"I hope that we don't find ourselves in another fight like that anytime soon," Ashley sighed as she slapped a fresh magazine into her weapon. "I'm down to my last mag," she continued.

"Me too," Kaidan said as he too reloaded.

"Fist can't be far," Shepard said. "Let's go." They went through the door that the krogan bouncer had guarded when he still lived and entered the back rooms. It was mostly storage space, but they eventually found the manager's office. Silently counting down from three, Shepard opened the sliding door and stormed with the speed only an augmented human could. Inside was a Caucasian human with a crew cut and a boxy object in his hand. "Drop it, right now!" Shepard shouted, pointing her gun at the man.

"Okay, okay, just don't shoot me!" Fist cried out as he slowly lowered the object onto the ground and kicked it towards his captors. Kaidan picked the object up and examined it.

"It looks like a remote activator, probably to a defense system of some sort," he noted as he opened the back and removed the battery to avoid accidental activation. Spartan speed had beaten Fist as he had not even realized Shepard was pointing a gun at him.

"Wh-What do you want?" Fist stammered in fright. "Money? Guns?"

"Information," Shepard replied, stepping closer to the cowering man. "You work for Saren, I want to know everything you have on him."

"Saren?" Fist said, feigning confusion. "I don't know who you're talking about." Shepard rolled her eyes and pressed her gun to his forehead. "Okay-okay-okay-okay!" he shouted quickly as he buckled under the threat of execution. "I don't know anything, but about half an hour ago, some quarian chick came in claiming to have some dirt on a turian. I knew that it was Saren and offered to take it off her hands, but she wanted to sell it to the Shadow Broker directly," he said.

"Ridiculous," Wrex snorted. "The Shadow Broker doesn't deal directly with _anyone_."

"That's what I told her," Fist exclaimed, "but she insisted. Finally, I had a couple of my boys take her out into the back alleys, wait ten minutes and then kill her."

"How long ago was this?" Shepard snarled through clenched teeth.

"A few minutes before you guys showed up," Fist whimpered. "I swear that's all I know." Shepard pondered the crime boss's words for a moment before removing the gun from his head.

"We're on the clock people, let's move," she ordered. As they made to leave, Wrex's voice reached her ears.

"Shepard, what about our deal?" the krogan demanded. Turning to face the mercenary, she answered.

"I got what I needed," she said without emotion. "He's all yours." With a feral grin, Wrex nodded in satisfaction, turning to Fist while Shepard and her team left for the back alleys. Just as her hand reached the back exit door, they heard the roar of a shotgun blast.

* * *

The quarian resisted the urge to sigh in annoyance. After arguing with the man Fist for nearly twenty minutes he had finally said that the Shadow Broker would meet her to buy the information that she had obtained in the alleys behind Chora's Den in five minutes. That had been nearly ten minutes ago, and she was getting impatient. Furthermore, her escorts had been two salarians wearing face masks and a turian that was unsubtly leering over her body. While they were escorting her, she had discreetly entered a command into her omni-tool that would temporarily overload any electronic devices nearby except her own, but had not activated it.

"What's taking so long?" she finally said with a sigh.

"Don't worry, he'll be here," the turian drawled. "'Though you know, if you want to pass the time…" he trailed off as he tried to lay a hand on the quarian's thigh, but was slapped away.

"Forget it, the deal's off," she said, eager to get away from here. With a sigh and roll of his eyes, the turian drew a gun, as well as his two companions.

"Ehh, just as well," he said. "It's about time to kill you anyway." As he raised his weapon to aim, the quarian quickly activated the overload command stored in her omni-tool, which momentarily stunned the three assailants as ear-piercing static shrieked through their earpieces. She grabbed the turian's gun with one hand and punched him in the jaw with the other before diving behind some crates. She pointed the gun around her cover and fired blindly while the salarians returned fire. A few seconds later, she heard three shots that did not come from either salarians' weapons, along with the sound of three bodies falling.

"It's clear, you can come out now," a female voice said. Still gripping the weapon, the quarian slowly raised herself up from behind her shelter to see three humans – either military or mercenary if their armor was anything to go by – as well as a turian C-Sec officer and a sangheili. Between them were the slain bodies of the three would-be assassins.

"Who are you?" the quarian demanded. She was not ready to trust these newcomers yet; for all she knew, they stopped the people that tried to kill her now just to get her to lower her guard and kill her later.

"I'm Commander Shepard of the Systems Alliance," the apparent leader said, holding up her hands in a placating gesture. "Just put the gun down and let's be calm about this. I heard that you had some sort of information on Saren?" she continued. The quarian did not respond immediately, her face unreadable through her visor. Eventually, her finger eased off the trigger of her gun as she laid it down on top of the crate, though her hand still clutched it if she needed to draw it again.

"A few days ago, I came across something, yes," she said. Activating her omni-tool, she dialed a few keys to play the file.

"Did you find what you were looking for on Eden Prime?" a female voice asked.

"I did," Saren's flanged growl replied. "With the knowledge I gained from the beacon, it will only be a matter of time before we uncover the location of the Conduit," he continued.

"And one step closer to the return of the Reapers…" the female voice said, a hint of anticipation in her voice.

"I've been trying to get this to the Council, but no one will even consider letting me hand this in," the quarian said, closing her omni-tool. "I figured that all I could do was to sell this to the Shadow Broker and hope for the best. You can guess how that turned out," she continued, gesturing towards the corpses. "Why are you looking for this data?" she asked.

"We're investigating the Eden Prime incident," Shepard said. "We can help each other out here: You get your audience with the Council, and we get the evidence we need to hang Saren. Do we have a deal?" the Spartan asked. The quarian considered the proposition. She was taking a risk by accepting, but with the threat of someone controlling the geth, either Saren or these "Reapers", she figured that it was worth it.

"Alright, we have a deal," she said.

"Interesting…" Udina muttered to himself as he listened to the recording. "Where did you say you got this from again, Miss…" he trailed off, unable to remember the quarian's name.

"Tali'Zorah nar Rayya," she said. "I got this from the data banks of a geth patrol." The human ambassador nodded in interest as he typed away at his computer.

"I've contacted the Council about this," he said. "Hopefully, they won't take too long to respond." Surely enough, the holographic avatars of the three councilors appeared in the room ten minutes later.

"Ambassador Udina," the salarian councilor said. "You said that you have obtained new evidence regarding the Saren case?" His weary tone implied that he was not thrilled to be renewing this discussion.

"Yes," the elderly ambassador replied. "This young lady here," he continued, gesturing to Tali, "has provided me with irrefutable evidence that places Saren at Eden Prime."

"A quarian?" the turian ambassador sneered. "Do you really think that you can fool us with your puppets, human?"

"May we see this evidence?" asked the asari councilor, ignoring her colleague's snide remark. Udina went back to his computer and forwarded them the audio file. The three councilors brought up their omni-tools and played it. The asari frowned when she heard the female voice on the recording. When the file ended, the turian councilor scoffed.

"This could be a fake," he said.

"I did not fake it!" Tali snapped.

"We will need to run tests to verify the authenticity of this data," the salarian councilor said, rubbing his chin in thought.

"I do not believe it will be necessary, but we must be certain," the asari councilor said. "We will reconvene shortly in the Council chambers." The session ended, the three holograms blinked out of existence.

* * *

**CODEX 3.25 – HUMAN/QUARIAN RELATIONS**

_The Systems Alliance first encountered the Quarian Migrant Fleet two months into the First Contact War when a quarian scouting party appeared in the human-controlled Seipher System. They had expected to find an unclaimed system to peacefully harvest resources from; instead, they discovered an entity that at first glance seemed to be technologically inferior to them. This assumption was quickly proven wrong when the human vessels, paranoid from the war and mistaking them for turian invaders, opened fire on the quarians, destroying one ship and heavily damaging the others. Tracking the Mass Relay signal to the forward party__'__s destination, the humans sent a fleet through slipspace to their perceived enemy's destination in order to intercept them. To their surprise, what they found was a flotilla of mostly civilian ships in the midst of fleeing the system. Still suspicious despite the overwhelming presence of unarmed ships, the humans quickly established a barricade around the system__'__s Mass Relay to block the escape of the Flotilla. The quarians initially believed that their superior numbers could overwhelm their captors, but 8th Combined Alliance Fleet quickly arrived, making them realize that any attempts to challenge their captors would end in nothing less than __a massacre__for__ the quarian species._

The Quarian Conclave requested a meeting to negotiate their release. Both sides were initially wary of each other: The humans were suspicious of any alien species that seemed associated with the turians, while the quarians were shocked and concerned about the humans_'__ liberal use of Artificial Intelligences on their ships. The ice was finally broken between the two when they spoke of their mutual experiences with the Council, particularly the turians; they both affirmed themselves to be innocent victims of the Citadel Council. A meeting between the heads of the Systems Alliance concluded that it would be advantageous for them to be on friendly terms with a species familiar with their enemy, so they granted the quarians mining rights to a planet and several mineral-rich asteroids in an abandoned system in exchange for information regarding the turians, as well as access to Mass Effect technology. Throughout the remainder of the war, the quarians served in a strictly advisory capacity, although they were amazed at the raw power that their new friends possessed that rivaled or in some cases even exceeded Mass Effect technology._

When the First Contact War ended, the Council noticed unusual behavior between the Systems Alliance and the quarians; the entirety of the Migrant Fleet remained in Alliance space when most other governments would have expelled them as soon as possible. The Council also noticed that the Systems Alliance was receiving quarian diplomatic emissaries with alarming regularity. Recognizing the geopolitical threat that having the largest non-Council entity in Citadel space falling into the System Alliance_'__s political orbit would bring, the Council began attempts to convince the quarians to sever their ties with the Alliance through a combination of threats and incentives. The offers included massive aid campaigns to reopening the quarian embassy to possible colonization rights. The threats - most of them originating from the turians - included the immediate seizure of all publicly and privately-held quarian assets as well as the blacklisting of any businesses providing services to the quarians. More extreme conspiracy theories circulate the extranet, ranging from offering to liberate the quarian homeworld Rannoch from the geth to __covert strikes to destroy the Migrant Fleet while within Alliance space__, though there is little if any evidence to support these theories. Caught between two enormous galactic powers with the past marring their perceptions of both, the Quarian Conclave still flares with debate about whom they should cast their lot with. Their official stance remains neutral, although many believe that that will change in the near future._

_The System Alliance__'__s popularity among the quarian public surged in 2769 when a joint project between quarian scientists, United Nations government researchers and the Jericho VII-based Optican Health Industries __modified__ a gene therapy__ originally used for the SPARTAN-IV program__ that__would allow quarians to live free from their environmental suits. The therapy uses epigenic research to activate or suppress certain genes – in the quarians__'__ case, those concerning their immune systems, allowing them to live in most oxygen-based atmospheres. Unfortunately, this treatment is temporary, so any who have taken this particular therapy must go to a Systems Alliance clinic to have it renewed every year. It is also an expensive and time-consuming process, limiting those who can afford to have the treatment in the first place. Within the Migrant Fleet, the treatment is mostly limited to those in active military service and the diplomatic corps as they are the ones most likely to be exposed to the outside world, although private individuals can take the treatment as well provided they have the funds to afford it. The epigenic treatment has become a fad among the quarians, with whole ships pooling their funds together to immunize those about to leave on their Pilgrimage. There are currently ongoing efforts to improve both the cost and effectiveness of the treatment._

* * *

And the chapters just keep getting longer; over eight thousand words this time.

Don't forget to review.


	5. Chapter 5

Hello everyone, here is my Christmas present to you. Happy holidays!

I do not own Halo or Mass Effect.

Thanks to Dusel and Havoc-legionnaire for their always-stellar beta work. Kudos to Dusel for the scene focusing on the Council in the beginning.

* * *

Somewhere in deep space, a black ship sailed across the void. Within the heart of the monstrosity of a space vessel sat the turian Spectre Saren Arterius who was currently pondering the knowledge that he had obtained from the prothean beacon on Eden Prime. Even with the cipher that had been provided by the entity that he discovered on Feros, helping to translate the chaotic storm of data, he was still struggling to make sense of it all.

When Saren discovered this ship and the knowledge that it contained, he became enlightened. He had seen the future of his people, and everything that he had done since then had been in a bid to prevent it. He was confident that the information locked away in the scrambled images that the beacon had imparted on him would hold the key to his species' salvation.

His musings were interrupted by the sound of footsteps. The turian already knew who it was, for there was only one other person occupying the ship who was brave enough to approach him directly in his quarters.

"Benezia," he growled. "What news do you bring me?" The figure sashayed into his view with a grace that could only come with centuries of experience yet still maintain an air of high dignity and a presence that demanded respect from all around.

"The beacon on Eden Prime has been destroyed," the asari Matriarch reported, crossing her arms.

"Excellent," Saren replied, spreading his facial fringes in the turian equivalent of a grin.

"However," Benezia added, "not before it was accessed by one of the humans. A Spartan named Shepard, I believe."

Saren normally prided himself in remaining cool and collected in even the most stressful of situations, but something about this news sparked an irrepressible rage within the turian. The atmosphere in the room seemed to change to reflect his mood; the cool blue light shifted to a fiery, neon red as Saren flailed like a rabid animal, tossing aside nearby furniture in his fury. He whipped around to face his subordinate and held his hand around her neck as if to wring the life out of her, but stopped short, his anger subsiding. He leaned close so that his hot breath tickled Benezia's face and spoke in a voice that was his, but at the same time carried an unusual, devilish quality.

"_Fix this_," he hissed as he returned to his chair to brood, the ambient light returning to its normal blue coloring. With a slight bow of her head, Benezia left to carry out her order. Perhaps that little project that Saren had invested in on Noveria could be of some use….

* * *

In the Alliance Embassy, Anderson, the two ambassadors, along with Shepard and her eclectic team had been waiting for the past three hours for the Council to return with their findings. Ambassadors Udina and 'Tarum had returned to their desks to perform their duties and Kaidan occupied himself by using his biotics to manipulate a pen that he had found, but the rest of the assembled group simply sat around in various states of anxiety and boredom. They immediately snapped to attention when the holographic figures of the Citadel Council appeared, signaling that they had come to a decision.

"We have analyzed the data that you have provided us," the salarian councilor stated.

"We have concluded that, shocking though it is, this data is authentic," the asari councilor added. "This council has stripped Saren Arterius of all power and authority that he commanded as a Spectre. We will send out investigative teams to locate and apprehend him," she continued.

"And…?" Udina drawled, crossing his arms as if expecting something.

"And _what_?" the turian councilor snapped back.

"Saren attacked a human colony, we demand that a human team be the one to bring him to justice!" the human ambassador exclaimed.

"Your arrogance is astounding, ambassador, to demand _anything_ of this council!" the turian councilor sneered. "This is a Citadel matter now, and of no concern to you."

"I disagree," Udina said. "Saren's terrorist actions were performed while he was still an agent of the Citadel government. That means that his actions could be considered an act of war on your part." The politician covered his nervousness with a smug grin. He did not actually have the authority to declare war against the Citadel, and those who could were uncertain that the Alliance would be able to emerge victorious; he was placing his bluff on the hope that the Council was too afraid of the possibility of a war to deny him. The three councilors looked at each other.

"Excuse us while we discuss your…proposal," the asari councilor said before the holographic avatars winked out of existence. Anderson looked at Udina with a raised eyebrow.

"Threats of war, Donnel?"" he asked in intrigue. "That's not like you; you usually go for the more diplomatic solution."

"This is a serious situation, and calls for serious measures," Udina replied dismissively, smoothing down his shirt. "We have to show the Council that if something happens within our borders, we won't simply stand aside while they deal with it."

Meanwhile, within the Citadel Council Chambers, the councilors discussed Udina's thinly-veiled threat.

"Are we really going to give into his demands? Does he think us so weak and himself so strong that he threatens us with war?" the turian councilor exclaimed in outrage. "He does not possess the authority to declare a war, nor the political leverage to convince his superiors!"

"True," muttered his salarian colleague, "but we do not need, nor want to antagonize the Systems Alliance and their allies. Perhaps we should entertain his proposal."

"We will not lose anything from such a gesture. In fact this may help our relations with the Systems Alliance. There are many on both sides of our states that desire better relations between us to open more trade routes and advance the technological exchange in the civilian sector," The asari councilor said; she seemed to enjoy the idea of warmer relations with their neighbors.

"Bah, when you put it that way…" the turian grumbled in a more subdued voice. "Then how are we to arrange this? If we simply grant a Systems Alliance team free access to Citadel space then they'll get bogged down by the bureaucracy and will lack the authority to make it past all the red tape that may hinder their investigation."

"We could write a Letter of Authorization," the salarian councilor mused. "But the Letter of Authorization cannot be used to simply supersede the authority of a planet's or districts legal authority; they'll be forced to work with investigators. This is not good enough; Saren is the best we had, so time will be of the essence. There is only one viable solution…" he trailed off, leaving his colleagues to come to the same conclusion as he did.

"No! This is unacceptable!" the turian roared in fury at his fellow council member and friend. "They're not even members of the Citadel!"

"Be reasonable about this!" countered the salarian. "If they agree and send someone they will most likely send Spartans. Our encounter with them during the Relay 314 Incident was too brief to fully gauge their effectiveness; this may be our best opportunity to analyze their abilities." While it was true that the turian military had encountered Spartans during the Relay 314 Incident – or "First Contact War" as it was known within the Systems Alliance – the Alliance had responded to the attack with the full force of the collective's military might, so records of the Spartans' combat prowess was lost amidst the storm of unusual technology that they brought to bear. Even after nearly thirty years, the humans refused to part with their secrets concerning the Spartans, and external research yielded little information.

"Interesting," the asari councilor muttered, quickly intervening before another bout of arguments could begin. "It's an entirely beneficial scenario for us; we capture the renegade Saren and gain valuable intelligence in return." She crossed one arm over her abdomen to support the other which palm rubbed softly at her chin, eyes twinkling. "And besides, we would only be granting their operative temporary status." The turian councilor ground his teeth in frustration, but realized that he could not change his colleagues' minds and bowed his head in acceptance.

Having made their decision, the Council reappeared before the Alliance representatives.

"After some deliberation, we decided that we cannot allow an agent of the Systems Alliance running around Citadel space unfettered," the asari councilor said, her arms crossed in front of her, her voice cool.

"However," the salarian councilor interjected before Udina could protest, "in order to foster good relations, we have agreed to allow one of your agents _temporary_ Spectre status…" Udina had covered his mouth with one of the palms of his hands to look contemplative, but in reality he wanted to hide his smile, "…until the former agent Saren Arterius is apprehended. Keep in mind that if you do not agree then we will not agree to allow an Alliance team to enter Citadel Space to hunt for the rogue. Is there someone that can be deployed with minimal time delay?" Udina's eyes briefly glanced at the Spartan sitting near him before he spoke.

"Yes," the human ambassador said. "I nominate Commander Shepard here. She and her crew have the most experience fighting Saren's forces, as well as the only ones who have experience fighting Geth for the past several centuries," he explained.

"Very well," the asari councilor said with a light tipping of her head. "Commander Shepard, please step forward." The Spartan stood up and stepped up towards the Council's projections. "Commander, it is the decision of this Council to grant you all the powers and privileges of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch of the Citadel," she recited.

"Spectres are not trained, but chosen," the salarian councilor continued the ceremonious speech, one that while unnecessary at this time and with this person was the way every Specter had been inducted. "Individuals forged in the fire of service and battle, those whose actions elevate them above the rank and file."

"Spectres are an ideal, a symbol," the asari councilor spoke again. "They are the embodiment of courage, determination and self-reliance. They are the right hand of the Council, instruments of our will."

"Spectres bear a great burden," the turian councilor led the conclusion, his voice calm and collected once again. "They are protectors of galactic peace, both our first and last lines of defense. The safety of the galaxy is theirs to uphold." There was a distinct tightness in his voice that the humans discerned, like he did not agree with his fellows' opinions but was following them nonetheless.

"You are the first person to be inducted into the Spectre Corps without being a member of any of the Citadel races," the asari councilor said. "This is a prestigious event for humanity."

"I am honored, Councilor," Shepard said respectfully, bowing her head slightly even though she was mentally scowling at the last jab.

"We will have a dossier on Saren and Matriarch Benezia compiled and sent to you within the hour," the salarian councilor continued crisply. "Good luck to you, Commander." With nothing more to be said, the three projections flickered out of existence. For a moment, there was silence as everyone processed what just happened before Anderson shook his head in shock and amusement.

"A Spectre," he said in awe. "Donnel, you may be an insufferable ass sometimes, but you're a hell of a politician."

"I'll take that as a compliment," the dark-skinned man drawled in a deadpan.

"It would be wise if you were to pursue Saren as soon as possible," Ambassador 'Tarum addressed Shepard. "Any delay would only give him more time to carry out whatever he has plotted. Or worse, use his connections to disappear into the shadows."

"I agree," Udina said. "Shepard, as soon as those dossiers come through, I want you wheels up and chasing after him," he ordered.

"Yes sir," Shepard said, snapping into a salute. With an outward nod of her head, she and her assembled crew stood up and vacated the office to prepare to leave the moment the information arrived. _A no-nonsense politician, how…refreshing_, she thought.

* * *

"Wow," Tali exclaimed in wonder when she saw the _Normandy_ in dock. She had seen the news vids of it after it had been publicly unveiled, but it was another thing entirely to see it in person.

"She's quite a sight, isn't she?" Kaidan asked. Tali shook herself out of her trance and strode to keep up with the rest.

The group had to stop momentarily at Garrus' residence and the small, cheap apartment that Tali had been renting in order for them to pack up their belongings. Each of them carrying a small duffel bag filled with essentials, they made their way to the star port finding Anderson and the two ambassadors waiting for them; The Captain held a data pad in his hand.

"Shepard, the Council just sent over the data they promised," the man said, handing Shepard the pad. "It has all the information that you'll need to start your pursuit of Saren," he continued.

"You won't be coming with us, sir?" the Spartan asked in curiosity. Her superior shook his head in response.

"No," he replied. "Unfortunately, I'll be sitting this one out. Saren and I worked together once, a long time ago." For a brief moment, Shepard saw a flicker of pain cross the older man's face before it disappeared. "The point is, is that Saren knows what to expect from me, and how to counter it, but he doesn't know you. Hopefully, that'll give you the edge that you need to take him down," he finished with a smile while he puffed his chest, she could see that he was proud, most likely of her she thought with a little hubris.

"We took the liberty of reviewing the information while waiting for you," Udina interjected himself into the conversation. "The data pad has more information, but in short you have three leads to follow: The first one is Matriarch Benezia's daughter, an archaeologist named Liara T'soni, last seen investigating a prothean ruin on Therum in the Knossus system," the human ambassador explained. "Intel shows that the two haven't spoken in years, but she may know something. Your objective is to secure Doctor T'soni and question her, _gently_." Shepard nodded while pondering the mission and the ambassador's stressing of the word "gently." On the one hand, she may know something about Saren's plan, things that he could have her killed for to protect. If she knew anything and was innocent, then they could provide her protection in exchange for information. On the other hand, if she was complicit in the turians' schemes, then she would be arrested and interrogated for every last scrap of information that she had in her head while Shepard rested easy knowing that she had deprived her foe of an ally.

"The second lead is on Feros," Anderson continued, pulling Shepard from her thoughts. "About a month ago, people living in the settlement there reported sightings of a ship matching the description of the one seen on Eden Prime," he continued.

"How did it land on a colony without the Alliance hearing about it?" Shepard asked, confused at how they could miss a ship so large and distinctive.

"Somehow it managed to spoof our ground-to-space defenses," Anderson replied with a shrug. "And the colony there was deemed of low strategic value, so there were no ships patrolling the sector, nor was there an invasion like on Eden Prime," he continued. Shepard resisted the urge to scowl; "low strategic value" was also a term used to describe her homeworld Mindoir, which explained why there was little more than an easily-beaten token defense before the batarian slavers came, the same thing doubly so for those colonies that were established just to get away from the Systems Alliance. While she now understood that the Alliance simply did not have the resources to provide adequate protection for every single colony, especially after the boom of settlements following the discovery of the Mass Relays, it still angered her to see a colony left so vulnerable.

"The final lead is on Noveria," Ambassador 'Tarum wrapped up the briefing. "When the Council froze Saren's assets, they noticed that he had invested a large sum of money into a project being conducted there, but we don't know what it is or who's running the project. We fear that it may be a weapon of some sort. Be careful though, Noveria is a colony solely existing to help large corporations that want seclusion and to be able to conduct business away from prying eyes; enemies could be made there easily, powerful ones." _Like diving in a shark pool naked_, Shepard thought dryly. She hated corporate types, thinking that they could do whatever they pleased simply because they were obscenely rich; luckily she had extremely few dealings with the corporate sector as a Spartan, but this could lead to some interesting results.

"It's your call, Shepard," Anderson began. "You're calling the shots now, so you decide which lead takes priority," he continued. He snapped into a salute, which the Spartan dutifully returned. "Good luck and Godspeed to you, Commander."

"Thank you, sir," Shepard said. Turning to her crew, she spoke with a loud and clear voice, "All right people, load up! Except you, Wrex," she added, pointing to the crimson-armored krogan, "I want a word with you first." Shrugging, Wrex stepped around Tali and followed Shepard to a secluded corner of the dock.

"What do you want, Shepard?" the mercenary inquired.

"Why are you here?" the Spartan asked bluntly. "You took care of Fist, so our partnership is technically over. Vakarian I can understand tagging along. Even that quarian kid Tali, I can probably guess as to her reason, but why are you following me?"

"Honestly?" Wrex answered with a shrug. "I was bored. Work's been slow in the last several decades, hadn't had any real danger confront me in a century, so I figured that tagging along with you and your crew for a while would inject some excitement into my life." For several seconds, Shepard was silent, looking over the krogan with an analytical gaze. Finally, she nodded her head in acceptance.

"All right, I'll let you on for now," she said, stepping aside. "Try not to scare any of the crew." Wrex gave an amused snort.

"No promises," he rumbled before walking up into the ship, Shepard close behind, she would keep extra close attention on that one. As a mercenary his word was, as a matter of fact, worth only the amount of credits he was being paid, and a mercenary offering his services _pro bono_? Well his word was worth as much as his payment, which was nothing. Once the two warriors stepped into the airlock, the door sealed behind them and the room filled with disinfectant while the decontamination laser screen swept over them. Several mind-numbingly slow seconds later the inner doors opened to allow them entry into the ship itself. While Wrex went elsewhere to find a place to settle into, Shepard turned towards the cockpit as the ship's pilot addressed her.

"Commander, heard you got promoted, congratulations," Joker said as he spun his chair around to face his commanding officer. "Got any grandiose speeches to regale the crew with before we head off?" he asked.

"Not really, no," Shepard said as she turned around and walked into the main body of the ship, leaving her pilot frowning a little. However she was not an orator, so there was no point in wasting time with something that she had no skill in. Stepping up into the Command Information Center, a holographic image of the Milky Way appeared before her, three red dots marking the locations of her three potential destinations. "Joker, set a course for Therum, maximum speed," she ordered.

"Aye, Commander," the pilot acknowledged over the intercom. A loud metallic noise echoed throughout the ship as the Citadel's electromagnetic anchors unfastened themselves from the _Normandy's_ hull, allowing Joker to leave the station. "Electromagnets disengaged; plotting course for Therum now; ETA is ten hours," he reported.

* * *

Light-years away on the inhospitable planet of Therum, the object of Shepard's quest currently sat at a simple plastic fold-up table in an excavation site several dozen meters underground surrounded by walls of red rock, tapping away at her computerwith one hand while holding a cup of Alliance-imported coffee in the other. Grimacing slightly as she took a sip of the bitter brew that was turning cold and rather awful in taste, Doctor Liara T'soni recorded her latest findings. She had discovered several prothean writings scattered throughout the ruins and was slowly translating them. A few of them made reference to an alien race that came before them. Having read from Alliance publications about a race that dominated the galaxy a hundred thousand years ago, she wondered if these Forerunners were what the prothean texts referred to; however, what she had translated so far was too vague to draw any conclusions.

Liara was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of one of the old elevators that were constructed when the mine-turned-archeological dig-site was first created, hummed to life in the distance; with her being the only one working within these ruins she immediately suspected the worst. Saving her data to a portable drive, Liara deactivated her computer and grabbed a pistol. There were many people in the galaxy willing to pay good money for prothean artifacts, which made ruins such as these popular targets for raiders and mercenaries looking to make a quick profit; though her skill in combat paled in comparison against the infamous asari commandos, studying ruins alone for nearly twenty years had given the young archaeologist experience in dealing with such looters.

After pulling back the slide partway to ensure that there was a thermal clip inside, Liara lightly dove behind some rocks to conceal herself while she waited for the intruders to show. A few minutes later, a krogan appeared; its crest was black and its skin a sickly yellow. His build was massive and intimidating, just like every other member of its species that the relatively young Asari had seen. Following behind it was a group of over a dozen beings that the asari had only read in history texts and seen in holo-projections.

_Geth?_ She thought as panic crept down her spine. _What are geth doing here?_ She resisted the urge to gasp when one of the synthetic soldiers caught the krogan's attention and pointed in the direction that she was hiding at, its spotlight-like head centered on the rocks she was using for cover.

"It's no use hiding, Doctor!" the krogan shouted, his voice echoing throughout the empty cavern _By the Goddess_. "We know you're there!" Liara quickly considered her she surrendered, then the krogan would probably kill her or take her prisoner for reasons that she dare not consider. On the other hand, she did not think that she could take on a force of this size by herself; that left only one option: Fight…and flight.

A blue corona flared around Liara's body as she focused a dense ball of dark energy into her hand, the glow illuminating the surrounding area. Once it had reached its peak, she threw the orb and immediately fled deeper into the cave. The biotic singularity that she had conjured sucked all that was not fastened to the ground towards its center. The more distant geth managed to escape its gravitational pull while the krogan latched onto a nearby stalagmite to anchor himself and weather the storm, powerful muscles contracting to overcome the powerful gravitational forces.

The geth unfortunate enough to be close to the singularity however were sucked in and crushed by the intense miniature gravity well. After several seconds the singularity exploded, sending whatever scraps of metal and plastic that had not been crushed to atoms out like a bomb. The krogan hissed in pain when a piece of shrapnel sliced him across the cheek, but the pain only served to fuel his rage.

"Find her!" the reptilian alien bellowed, orange blood trickling down his face.

Liara's footsteps and rapid breaths echoed throughout the cavern as she ran towards her destination. Blue streaks of light flew past her as the geth fired at her, blue light filling her vision as a few impacted against her biotic barriers, and more specifically her legs - they wanted her alive! Ducking behind a large rock, the asari fired a few rounds from her pistol before throwing a biotic push, the wave knocking the robots onto their backs but not crippling them. Her breath regained, she resumed her flight to her destination. She soon came to a large cavern; within the far wall of the area were several short, silver-walled tunnels that led to a large lift, prothean in make; she knew how to operate it…mostly.

Running into one tunnel, Liara waved her hand over a pedestal, activating the holographic interface. Seeing her pursuers approaching, she frantically tapped her fingers on the various buttons displayed before her, breathing a sigh of relief when a blue energy barrier materialized in front of her cutting off her attackers' progress. Her relief was short-lived however as she suddenly felt herself being lifted up by and unseen force and suspended in the center of the room, her limbs being pulled to each corner with enough force to restrain, but not cause any major discomfort. When the krogan came up to her, he gave a rumble of amusement.

"Interesting," he said. One of the geth clicked at its krogan commander and pointed at the gargantuan mining laser nearby, left behind from the first team to discover these ruins. _Damn it, _she thought. However, to her surprise, the krogan laughed and shook his head.

"Nah, I actually prefer you this way," he chuckled. "It'll be fun to see you waste away in there." With a monstrous laugh, the krogan turned to walk away. "It was nice knowin' you, Doc," he called out behind him as he disappeared into the caverns.

Liara emitted a sound of frustration; she had managed to elude whatever sinister plans her would-be captors had in store for her, but now she was locked in a prison with no way to escape, and they did not even want her alive like she had initially thought. Now all she had to look forward to was a slow death from thirst, on top of the indignity of doing so while being strung up like a piece of meat. She tried pulling her limbs, but whatever it was that currently bound her would not yield. It was doubtful that there would be anyone coming to her rescue, so she gave a sigh of defeat and hung her head in resignation, anticipating her slow and undoubtedly unpleasant demise.

* * *

"We'll be in orbit around Therum in thirty seconds, Commander," Joker said as his hands flew over the myriad of holographic controls before him. Behind him, Shepard stood watching, clad in her Spartan armor except for her helmet which she held under her arm. "You know, you don't _have_ to watch me every time I do this, I can do this by myself," the snarky pilot added.

"I like to watch," Shepard replied simply. Joker shrugged and returned his attention to the consoles before him. Spartans were weird, and the proof was standing behind him.

"Dropping out of Slipspace in three, two, one…now," he counted down, the universe outside shifting from a blur of color to the light-speckled void of space. "Engaging stealth systems," the pilot continued, hiding the _Normandy_ from any potential threats. Mere seconds after he did so, a red warning light began to flash. "Whoa," Joker exclaimed, scanning the information scrolling before him.

"What is it?" Shepard asked.

"LADAR's picking up several ships in orbit around the planet with unknown silhouettes," Joker replied. Reducing the windows that displayed the LADAR information, Joker turned to face his commander. "If we drop now, whoever's out there's gonna know that you're running around. What'll it be, Commander?" he asked.

"We still need to secure Doctor T'Soni, now we have these guys looking for her too," Shepard replied after a moment's thought. "Drop us a few kilometers from our destination; I'll lead a team to infiltrate and grab the good doctor from afar and make sure that no ground based hostiles can visually mark you for their friends up in orbit," she ordered as she secured her helmet over her head. "Alert the ground team to meet me in the drop bay," she continued as she left towards the elevator.

"You got it," Joker replied mostly to himself as he activated the ship-wide communications array. "Ground team, suit up and report to the drop bay ASAP; all other personnel prepare for a hot drop." His immediate orders fulfilled, Joker pointed the ship down and began to descend towards the planet.

Shepard exited the painfully slow elevator to the lower decks to find her team gathered together. Ashley and Kaidan were wearing specialized suits for hostile-atmosphere combat, while Ket had traded his orange ceremonial armor for a mottled gray combat harness similar to Shepard's own MJOLNIR armor; Garrus and Wrex had both donned helmets in addition to the armor that they wore when the stepped onto the ship; Shepard noticed that they both had Alliance-issue IFF transponders attached to their armor. Strangely enough, Tali was also present.

"Tali, what are you doing here?" Shepard asked in surprise.

"I want to help, Shepard," the quarian girl pleaded. "I can fight!" Shepard was about to open her mouth to argue but Joker's voice cut her off.

"Five minutes till drop, Commander," the pilot warned. Behind her helmet, Shepard scowled; it would take at least three minutes to ensure that everything was prepared for the drop, so she had not time to argue.

"All right," the Spartan said. "Williams, get her some armor and a weapon," she barked as she made her way to the weapons lockers. She grabbed an M-55 and attached an M-89 underslung grenade launcher to its bottom rail. Attaching it to her back with the magnets in her suit, Shepard grabbed a full load of ammunition as well as a belt of grenades, three each of plasma and fragmentation. She grabbed a plasma rifle along with several replacement, as well as two M12 Anti-Electronic Pulse Generators, colloquially referred to as EMP grenades. Adapted from Covenant technology, the baseball-sized device would send out a short-range electric field that would short out any electronics within its range. If they ran into any geth during this operation, then Shepard hoped that these devices would help to disable them.

"Commander, we're set," Ashley reported. Tali stood next to her wearing an Alliance-issued combat vest with her thighs and arms also armored. The quarian held an M-22 in her hand and a plasma pistol on her hip. The female marine was holding an M-267 Automatic Shotgun, although the attached SM-6 Arc Blade bayonet was currently deactivated.

"Good, then load up into the Hedgehog," Shepard ordered as she closed and secured the locker. "Alenko, you take the wheel; Williams, you're on guns," she continued. The two humans ran ahead of everyone else and climbed into their respective seats while Shepard sat in the commander's seat. The rest of the squad sat in the passenger area of the vessel and buckled up. With Wrex taking up much of one side, there was barely enough room for everyone to fit. The rear door rose, sealing the vehicle's occupants inside, and the machine hummed to life as the operation crew ensured that all systems were operating properly.

"All systems green, Commander," Kaidan called as he finished his diagnostics. A tactical display popped into existence in front of Shepard's visor to display tactical information, including hull integrity and ammunition counters for each of its myriad weapons.

"Joker, we're ready to drop!" the Spartan reported to her pilot.

"Acknowledged, Commander, opening drop bay doors now," the pilot responded a second later. The doors slowly slid open, the wind roaring even through the thick, sealed shell of the M-280 as it ripped through the chamber. "Beginning drop descent now," Joker warned. Through the vehicle's windshield and the open door, the crew saw the planet's ground and felt themselves list forward as the _Normandy_ began its steep descent. "Releasing anchors in three…two…one," he counted down, and with a clang the M-280 began to roll forward until it fell out of the drop bay, the ship pulling upwards now that its payload had been released.

"Thirty thousand meters," Shepard counted, her voice shuddering as her body was being rattled by the freefall.

"Firing front thrusters," Kaidan said as he flipped up three switches and pressed a button. Beneath them, two thrusters underneath the M-280 burst to life, shifting the vehicle so that its shape provided the most air resistance.

"Twenty thousand," Shepard continued, watching the distance meter rapidly plummet. "Ten thousand….Seven thousand meters…. Five thousand meters. Alenko, fire all thrusters!" she ordered.

"Firing," Kaidan repeated, pressing down the button that he used earlier along with two more. Six thrusters activated, slowing the sixteen-ton monstrosity's descent until it crashed into the earth, a cloud of dirt and gravel kicked up into the air upon impact. "We've hit groundside, Commander, all systems functional."

"Everybody still alive back there?" Shepard inquired, looking into the passenger compartment behind her.

"We're good," Garrus responded; the rest of the crew made murmurs of agreement. Nodding in satisfaction, Shepard settled back into her seat.

"The ruins are approximately fourteen klicks north of our position, Alenko," the Spartan said, consulting the vehicle's map. Without a word, Kaidan lowered the accelerator, causing the wheels and treads of the Hedgehog to grind away at the dirt below. Within seconds the vehicle had dug itself out of its self-made miniature crater and was speeding towards the designated location, although he had to take care to avoid the numerous lava pools that dotted the landscape. Halfway to their destination, the radio crackled as Joker's voice filled Shepard's ears.

"Commander, you've got an enemy ship bearing down on your position; stay sharp," he warned. True to his word, a large shadow at first and then a geth ship roared overhead, roughly the size of a drop-ship or an armed troop carrier, stopping roughly a thousand meters ahead to drop two objects before flying off.

"That doesn't look good," Kaidan muttered. Shepard zoomed in on the two objects that the ship had dropped to see them unfold into towering walkers. Almost immediately, the heads of two geth Armatures aimed their cannons at the Hedgehog and began to charge them up.

"Evasive maneuvers!" Shepard yelled. Kaidan sharply turned the steering wheel and slammed on the accelerator, dodging the two pulse cannon blasts that the Armatures had fired at them. "Williams, use plasma rounds to take those things out!" she ordered.

"On it!" The gunnery chief acknowledged, pressing a button on her console. Within seconds, the turret above them had been loaded with its lethal payload. Centering one Armature within her crosshairs, Ashley pressed the trigger. Glowing blue orbs streaked through the air to strike the nearest Armature. Though the geth's kinetic barriers blocked the physical round's strike, the heat from the plasma explosion quickly turned the mech's dark-gray hull a glowing red. Displeased with how the Armature's shields held, Ashley ceased fire with the cannon and took aim with the heavy machine gun and fired, using dark energy-based kinetic barriers' weakness towards rapid gunfire to eat away at the geth's shields. Her efforts soon paid off when the Armature's shields failed and the bullets punched through the softened, superheated metal. Switching back to the cannon's main gun, Ashley sent a withering blast of gunfire that tore through the geth's softened body, ripping it apart. Kaidan continued to dodge weapons fire from the second Armature while the first one collapsed in a twisted pile of melted metal and plastic.

Now that they were closer to their foe, Ashley pressed a button that swapped control of the main gun with the secondary plasma turret; moving the targeting reticule so that it encircled the second Armature. The soldier unleashed a flurry of plasma that steadily ripped through the geth's shields and heated its armored hull until the metal melted and dripped away, revealing the sensitive circuitry underneath. With plasma coursing through its internal systems the second Armature quickly fell as its insides were consumed by the blue fire, black smoke billowing from the hole in its front.

"Good work, Williams," Shepard congratulated. "Now let's get out of here before they decide to drop something else on our heads." Kaidan needed no further prompting as he gunned the engine and sped past the machines' smoldering corpses. No further geth resistance was met and the vehicle eventually stopped roughly half a kilometer away from the ruins, the pathway blocked by rocks too high to jump over and too close together to drive through.

"Guess we're walking," The Spartan said to no one in particular as she stood up and hoisted her weapon. "All right, everybody out," she ordered. The rear hatch opened and the Hedgehog's occupants filed out. "Vakarian, Wrex, stay here and guard the vehicle; everyone else will head up to the ruins," she ordered in a voice that left no room for questioning. Garrus momentarily slumped his shoulders in disappointment that he was relegated to guard duty, but quickly straightened up.

"You got it, Shepard," the turian said. Nodding, the Spartan raised her weapon and moved forward along with the rest of her team, leaving Garrus and Wrex behind. The former C-Sec officer rapped his fingers against the underside of his rifle as the two beings sat in awkward silence.

* * *

With the entrance to the ruins in sight, Shepard peered down the scope of her M-55 to see if there was anyone patrolling the area. Four geth troopers like the ones she saw at Eden Prime paced around the area of the entrance.

"I spot four targets," she said. "Ket, you go on ahead and take them out; we'll provide covering fire if necessary," she continued.

"Understood," the sangheili confirmed as he reaffirmed his grip on his M-42 General Purpose Machine Gun. With a mere thought, he faded from vision, leaving only a faint shimmer as evidence of his presence. With swift yet light steps, he snuck over to the geth patrol, taking care not to be spotted by them; though breakthroughs in Active Camouflage technology following the creation of the Systems Alliance had rid the cloak of its exothermic properties, there was still a chance that the geth would see the distortion that he left. Taking one hand off his weapon, Ket grabbed a baton-like device from his hip. With a flick of his wrist, two glowing blades blazed to life. Sneaking up on the nearest geth, he struck; the mech had heard a crackling hiss from behind it, but before it could react it found itself being sliced in two by the sangheili's energy sword.

The other three mechs immediately took aim at the floating blades of plasma and fired, forcing Ket to duck behind cover. Deactivating the sword, he slapped the handle back onto his thigh and held up his machine gun. When the geth stopped their assault to eject their weapons' heat sinks, Ket used the momentary pause to emerge from cover and return fire. The first geth fell as its shields and body were shredded by gunfire. A few rounds of retaliatory fire impacted against Ket's shields, but they were quickly cut down when Shepard and the remainder of the squad opened fire.

"You alright?" Shepard asked, lowering her weapon.

"I'm fine," the sangheili responded, dusting himself off.

"All right, we're going in; everyone stack up behind me," Shepard ordered, raising her weapon and stepping up the ramp that would lead into the ruins. The round doors slid open, allowing the Spartan and her crew passage inside. "Keep an eye out, we don't know what could be lurking down here." Keeping a vigilant eye on her in-suit radar, Shepard descended down the stairs that led deeper into the cavern. Several more geth troopers were spotted and destroyed easily thanks to the cover the team's high position granted them. As Shepard's team explored the ruins; however, the Spartan could not shake the feeling that this token defense was not the full extent of the forces she would be dealing with.

Eventually they reached the end of the cavern. Several holes were carved into the far wall, each one lined with white tiles and blocked by a pale blue force field. Approaching the nearest one, Shepard raised an eyebrow in surprise at the unconscious asari hanging in mid-air.

"Doctor T'soni?" the Spartan asked, forcing the asari back into the land of the wake.

"Nrgh…" Liara groaned groggily as she blinked away the haze of fatigue. "Rescuers?" she asked in surprise. "I wasn't expecting anyone to come to my aid, especially not from the Systems Alliance."

"You're a person of interest in a matter we're investigating," Shepard said vaguely. She touched her finger against the force field, feeling her hand being repelled as if pressing against a steel wall. "We have evidence of your mother Benezia collaborating with a terrorist against the Alliance. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

"Benezia?" Liara asked in shock. "I wouldn't know anything about what she's doing, I haven't even spoken to her in years!" she exclaimed. Shepard looked up at the bound asari, but Liara could not tell whether the Spartan believed her or not through her golden visor.

"How did this happen?" Shepard finally asked, nodding towards the force field.

"I was attacked by geth!" Liara exclaimed before shaking her head and laughing in disbelief. "Imagine that, geth outside the Veil after so long! Anyway, I ran here," she continued. "I thought that if I put up this barrier, it would stall them long enough for me to use the lift behind me to escape, but obviously I ran into a problem."

"So how do we shut this thing off?" Shepard asked.

"It's impossible to do from out there, you have to shut it off from the console there," Liara said, nodding her head to the console below her. "The lift goes at least one level below me; you can use that mining laser over there to drill below me and climb up," she continued, pointing to the enormous mining laser behind Shepard. "Be careful; there was a krogan leading the geth, and they may not want you to free me," she warned. Shepard nodded in acknowledgment as she stepped up to the mining laser.

"Alenko, can you hack this thing?" she asked.

"I think so," Kaidan replied. "It'll take a few minutes, though." As he prepared to work, Tali raised her hand.

"I can do it too," she volunteered. Kaidan turned to Shepard for deference; the Spartan considered the possibility for a few seconds before nodding. Hooking her gun onto a loop on her vest, Tali activated her omni-tool and began to type commands into the holographic display. After several seconds, the device gave a soft chime. "I'm in," she said. The commander could not decide if it was wonder or disbelief that was written over Kaidan's face, but she was impressed by the speed in which she had cracked the laser's code. So she had made a right choice when she allowed the quarian girl on board.

"Fire," Shepard ordered simply. Nodding, Tali entered another command into her omni-tool. The enormous laser began to hum as it built its charged and gave a deep rumble as it fired, the laser burning through solid rock. After several seconds, the laser died down and Shepard stepped through the hole that it had made. She saw a dull gray pillar within a large chamber; looking down, she saw a solid platform roughly ten feet below. Before anyone could move further though hiss followed by a loud explosion hurtled the Spartan forward; an explosive projectile had been fired at her back and her shields were taken down, but she quickly rolled onto her knees and pointing her weapon at her attacker.

Having stood closest to her both Kaidan and Ashley were both thrown forward by the explosion while Tali and Ket, who were both standing furthest from the Spartan whirled around just as the other three Systems Alliance soldiers had.

"Not bad, humans," the krogan that had chased Liara earlier said, sarcastically applauding Shepard's actions by patting his gun making clapping sounds while surrounded by geth. "Unfortunately, I've got orders not to let the good doctor live, so I'm afraid that I can't allow you to take her." A crimson-red geth hoisted large tube-like device onto its shoulder and fired a rocket straight at the group.

"Scatter!" Shepard shouted just as her shield came back online in a bubble surrounding her as she and her team fled, narrowly dodging the rocket; Ashley and Tali jumped down, rolling across the platform to break their fall while the others ran away from the drop. Shepard grabbed one of her EMP grenades and armed the device. "EMP!" she warned as she pitched the orb into the crowd of geth; the device activated and emitted its electrical field, the geth's movements slowing to a crawl as they short circuited, the krogan dropping his weapon with a cry of pain when it overheated. "Go, go, go, go!" Shepard shouted as she and her crew ran towards the drop. Shepard was the last one to drop, firing an explosive grenade from her underslung launcher before leaping down, destroying several of the geth now that their kinetic barriers were inactive.

Stepping up to the console, Shepard commanded the lift to take them to the next level where Liara awaited them trapped in the prothean defense mechanism. As the platform began to rise, she heard an enraged bellow coming from the ruins. She looked up and saw the krogan charging towards them. They immediately raised their weapons and opened fire, but the krogan's thick armor and berserker frenzy caused it to disregard its wounds as it barreled into Shepard and rammed her against the central pillar that held the lift; the impact had taken down her shields by nearly a third and continued to deplete as her back scraped against the metal behind her.

"Shepard!" Kaidan shouted as he flared up his biotics and pushed the krogan off of her. The krogan staggered but began another charge; another biotic attack to his legs sent the reptilian alien toppling to the floor.

Their target vulnerable, Shepard and her crew took the opportunity to unload their weapons into the krogan, never ceasing in their assault until all their magazines were empty and the krogan's body was riddled with bullets. Having heard of their legendary resilience, Ket took out his energy sword and sliced off the krogan's head, just in case the storm of lead leveled that he had endured had failed to kill him.

"Are you all right, Shepard?" Tali asked in concern while she maneuvered behind the human commander in order to examine the damage done to her armor. There was no physical damage apart from some scuffs and scorch marks from the rocket blast, but Spartan armor was one of the best armors in the whole galaxy and someone trained in engineering like Tali could easily realized that if she had been wearing almost any other armor Shepard would have been either dead or dying right now.

"I'm fine," Shepard said through gritted teeth as she reloaded her weapon. Truthfully, while her shields and armor had absorbed the majority of the impact, she still felt soreness in her torso and was certain that she would find bruising when she removed her armor later, perhaps even a cracked rib or two. It could have been much worse, she mentally reminded herself, if the krogan had decided to attack one of the others who did not have as much protection as her.

A few seconds later, the lift stopped at the next level. Shepard stepped to the console that Liara had noted, waving her hand over it to activate it.

"How do I let you down from here?" she asked as she looked at the controls. Liara strained to look at the display from her position.

"The bottom left symbol," the asari eventually said. Shepard pressed the indicated symbol and whatever held Liara deactivated, sending the asari dropping to the ground. Shepard rushed over to help her back onto her feet. "Thank you," she said, holding a hand to her head. "I'm sorry, I just feel so lightheaded," she groaned.

"We'll have our doctor take a look at you," Shepard assured. "Now how do we get out of here?" she asked.

"This lift will take us straight to the surface," Liara said as she stumbled towards the lift's controls and entered the appropriate commands, causing it to rise again. Leaning against the console for support, she turned her head to face Shepard. "I appreciate your saving me, Commander, and I assure you, I am in no way involved in whatever my mother is doing."

"That's good to know," Shepard said before turning away. "Joker," she said into her comm. device, "we've picked up Doctor T'soni and are heading for the surface. Vakarian and Wrex are with the M-280 about half a klick north from our position."

"Roger that, Commander," Joker responded. "I'll go pick up the Hedgehog then swing around to pick you guys up. Joker out," he said before the line went dead. Looking up to see how much further they had to go before they reached the surface, Shepard estimated that it would be at least another minute or two before they reached the top, and in a combination of her post-combat fatigue and boredom, she had to resist the urge to hum _Girl from Ipanema_ to herself.

God, how she hated slow elevators.

* * *

_**CODEX 2.44 - M-280 "Hedgehog" Infantry Fighting Vehicle**_

_Initially developed by Crawford Defense Enterprises in 2741, the M-280 "Hedgehog" Infantry Fighting Vehicle first saw action during the liberation of Shanxi two years later. The new IFV garnered excellent performance reviews and will possibly overthrow the M12 Warthog Light Reconnaissance Vehicle as the most versatile ground vehicle in the UNDF arsenal. It measures approximately 10 meters in length, 5 meters in width, and 4 meters in height. Built primarily of the incredibly light, but incredibly strong amorphous Titanium-C alloy, the vehicle weighs in at 16 tons and can be easily hauled by all Alliance field transports. Experience in the ever shifting terrains in the colonies showed that a half-track configuration best suited the needs of a fast IFV, making the Hedgehog the first operational combat half-track in over 600 years. The M-280 is capable of carrying up to eight human or similarly-sized occupants: A driver, a gunner, a commander, and five passengers. Its miniature 100 megawatt fusion reactor and 275 kilowatt motor generates enough power and speed for the M-280 to achieve a top speed of 102 kph, making the Hedgehog only 20 kph slower despite the much heavier armor and weapons. While the Warthog still boasts superior maneuverability, the Hedgehog proved to handle far better in all terrains and elevations and has better acceleration thanks to its caterpillar tracks. Its distinctive design has caused some antique military vehicle experts to call it "a Stryker on half-tracks"._

_The main weapon of the M-280 is the 50-millimeter augmented helical rail gun mounted on a top turret. The main gun has a range of 5.2km, a cyclic rate at 180 rounds a minute (3 rounds a second), and a 700 round magazine. Ammunition load outs consists of the Semi-Armor Piercing High Explosive-Air Burst Capable (SAPHE-ABC) rounds and plasma rounds that were co-developed with New Covenant engineers. The turret also boasts an M-700 12.7mm HMG to engage softer targets at long range. The use of cased telescopic High Explosive Incendiary Armor Piercing (HEIAP) rounds gives the secondary HMG nearly the same firepower as a 25mm cannon and a 3000 round magazine. A separate coaxial turret mounts a light plasma cannon capable of 600 bolts per minute and a 200m range for close defense. For anti-ambush protection, two swiveling automatic grenade launchers providing an approximately 300-degree field of protection, leaving exposed only the direct front of the vehicle where the armor is thickest. For anti-heavy armor/fortification duty, the M-280 is outfitted with three M25 Pile Driver rockets loaded in two turret-mounted launchers and equipped with either plasma or TBX warheads._

_The M-280 sports two separate defensive systems: an exterior plasma shield and armor. The latest version of the Hedgehog boasts a new 4.2 gigajoule Mk 7 plasma shield. This new shield generator can sport a 4.2 gigajoule charge and can ionize the field to defend against plasma weapons. The field is compartmentalized into six sections for each side of the vehicles and the top and bottom. This ensures that a breach in one direction does not compromise the entire field and allows the Hedgehog to stay in the fight long by simply changing the side facing incoming fire. Another new innovation of the Mk 7 is that the plasma field does not actually absorb kinetic energy, but rather disperses it evenly against the armor and hull. This reduces the burden on the field while alerting the crew as to which side they are taking fire without having to check their screens._

_If the shields are defeated, the Hedgehog is still protected by sloped armor 100mm thick on the sides and rear and 180mm in the front. The armor itself is a composite layer of amorphous Titanium-C, metal matrix composite Titanium-B, polycrystalline ultrahard fullerite, and ablative refractive ceramics. The materials are explosion welded under a crushing 200 g environment and electronic beam milled to near perfection. This unique armor blend is the result of a long project to create an armor capable of defending against particle and plasma weapons. It allows for incredible strength endurance under fire and has an explosive reactive defense should the layers ever be breached. The main advantage this gives over conventional explosive reactive armor is that the armor has exceptionally high threshold for thermal and kinetic shock before detonation, making it far safer to use. To combat spalling, the vehicle's interior is lined with shear thickening fluid infused carbon nanotube-borazine webbings._

_This vehicle gets the name "Hedgehog" from a small mammal from the human home world Earth that is covered with protective spines, much as the M-280 is bristling with weapons.

* * *

_

The word count...it's…OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNDDDD! Jokes aside, this is my longest chapter to date with over 9300 words and 22 pages on Microsoft Word with Author's Notes.

Havoc-legionnaire has been kind enough to let me use his arsenal of weapons for my own purposes. For all human weapons, please refer to Havoc's appendix _**Halo: the Science of War**_. Barring some cosmetic changes and swappable batteries, assume that all Covenant weapons are functionally the same as canon unless otherwise noted. You can read Science of War at: .net/s/6553800/1/Halo_the_Science_of_War

During his beta run, Havoc informed me that some may consider Udina out of character. He suggested that I remind you that the political context is different here than in canon; Udina is not trying to get humanity a seat on the Council, but rather trying to defend the System Alliance's interests against a rival empire.

In other news, I have set up a YouTube account. The link is in my profile and comments are appreciated.

Have a happy new year, and don't forget to review!


	6. Chapter 6

After so long, I have finally finished the next chapter of The Halo Effect. Don't count on me being any faster, folks.

I do not own either Halo or Mass Effect. As always, please give thanks to Dusel and Havoc-Legionnaire for their stellar beta work.

* * *

When Shepard and her crew reached the surface, they found themselves roughly half a kilometer away from their starting point. A few minutes later, the _Normandy_ roared overhead, touching down a few meters ahead of them. With Liara being supported by Ashley and Kaidan, the group of five slowly made their way towards the ship, the cargo bay doors closing behind them as they entered. Waiting for them was Chakwas who immediately rushed the weary asari to the medical bay, the rest of the ground crew following close behind. Liara was hooked up to an IV drip and had blood drawn, along with a battery of tests that the Spartan only vaguely understood; not much longer after that they were all checked by the ship's medical officer.

"How is she, Doc?" Shepard asked, after she was free of the medics' fussing and the rest of her team had left.

"She's exhausted and dehydrated, although that is to be expected," Chakwas reported. "Other than that, she is quite healthy. After a couple of days of rest and fluids, she should be back to normal."

"That is good to hear, Doctor," Liara said from her position in bed.

"Are you feeling well enough to answer some questions, Doctor T'soni?" Shepard asked politely.

"I am," the asari replied as she pulled herself upright. "What is it that you wish to know?"

"We're pursuing a turian by the name of Saren," Shepard said; Liara frowned as she tried to recall if she had ever heard of the name. "He led an attack on the human colony Eden Prime a few days ago," the Spartan continued, "the entire colony was destroyed."

"That's terrible!" the asari gasped in shock. "But what does that have to do with me?" she asked.

"We have evidence that Saren was collaborating with your mother, Matriarch Benezia," Shepard answered. "We think that's why he went after you. Have you spoken with her recently?" she asked.

"My mother?" Liara said in confusion. "No, I haven't spoken to my mother in years. We parted on…less than amicable terms," she added, averting her eyes, uncomfortable with the subject.

"What about your father?" Shepard inquired. "Could he be connected to this somehow?"

"My…father was another asari," Liara answered; to Shepard's confusion, the young archaeologist seemed to be slightly embarrassed by this information. "I've never met her in any case." Eager to shift the conversation away to something else, the asari made a query of her own. "Why did Saren attack the colony?" she asked. Shepard did not answer immediately, debating whether or not she should reveal the existence of the prothean beacon. After a few silent seconds of deliberation, she decided that since the artifact was destroyed, there would be no harm in talking about it.

"An operational prothean beacon was found on Eden Prime. There was something in that beacon that Saren wanted badly. It was destroyed soon after he left," Shepard explained. "But before that, it managed to download…something into my brain, but I can't figure out what."

"I see," Liara said, visibly disappointed that the beacon had been destroyed. "Were you able to figure out what the beacon contained before it was destroyed?" she asked; again, Shepard did not answer immediately.

"In a sense," she eventually admitted. "Before its destruction, the beacon implanted…something, a vision into my mind, but so far I haven't been able to figure out what it means."

"A vision?" Liara asked, her interest piqued. "My specialty is prothean history; perhaps I could help you interpret the images you're seeing." When she saw that Shepard seemed uncomfortable with the suggestion, she added, "I understand your reluctance, Commander; melding can be an unsettling concept to those who are unfamiliar with it. I assure you, however that it's perfectly safe and I will only see what you choose to show me." Shepard was still not entirely comfortable with the idea of someone poking through her mind, but if it could help her make sense of the prothean vision and possibly figure out what Saren was after, then she would be willing to endure it.

"Do you think she can handle it?" she eventually asked Chakwas. The British woman considered the situation for a few moments.

"I wouldn't know to be honest, we will have to trust her on this." she acquiesced. "And we're already here should anything happen to either of you. Very well, I'll allow it," she continued. Liara shifted herself so she was looking the human strait in the eyes.

"Relax, Commander Shepard…" Liara said calmly, as she closed her eyes "…and embrace eternity!"

Shepard gasped as images flooded her mind again. Fear. Violence. Death. Machines. Random snapshots and strange noises flickering in and out of existence without pattern or context. When the vision ended, Shepard found herself once more standing in the medical room. Liara seemed fatigued and Shepard herself rubbed her forehead to relieve the odd feeling that she felt in her head: A feeling not quite painful enough to consider a headache, but uncomfortable enough that she wanted it gone quickly.

"I'm sorry, Commander," Liara said as she lay back down. "I'm afraid that I was unable to decipher the images," she continued sadly.

"It's okay," Shepard mumbled, shaking away the odd feeling in her head. "I need to get back to work. Have a speedy recovery, Doctor," she bid farewell as she exited the medical bay and made her way to the CIC. Shepard sighed as she leaned over the galaxy map, debating where she should go next. On the one hand, Saren had already visited Feros once before. On the other hand, that had been a month ago, and nothing had happened to the colony, and this mysterious investment that Saren had on Noveria piqued Shepard's interest.

"Joker, set a course for Noveria."

"Aye, Commander," he responded. "I estimate a sixty-hour transit time," he added. Nodding in satisfaction, Shepard retreated to the captain's quarters, which was little more than a room and a couple of desks with a computer resting on top of the one near her bed. Dropping into the computer chair, Shepard released a tired sigh; now that the adrenaline high from combat had worn off, she felt tired and achy, but she still needed to write a mission report to the Council. Summoning her military discipline, Shepard wrote her report and sent it to the Council before disrobing and collapsing onto her bed, allowing the blissful void of sleep to overwhelm her.

_**Fear. Pain. Blood. Fire. Machine. Death. **_

Shepard gasped as she woke with a start, her clothes and bedsheets clinging to her sweat-drenched skin. Turning on her bedside clock, the woman groaned when the clock displayed the numbers 0253 Local Earth Time. _Great, this damn vision isn't just tormenting my waking moments, it has to rob me of my sleep as well_, she thought bitterly as she climbed out of bed and peeled off her sweaty clothes, replacing them with a fresh set.

No longer feeling tired, Shepard exited her cabin into the ship proper. Because of the cramped nature of the _Normandy_, the crew was divided into two twelve-hour shifts; due to the early hour, the ship was currently being run by the "night crew." Even though in the back of her mind Shepard knew that these people existed, it was still slightly surreal to see her ship be populated by people that she did not recognize. She had time, familiarizing herself with the crew's dossiers would give her a chance to utilize her time in transit. Brushing the feeling aside, Shepard stepped into the mess hall, surprised to see that she was not the only non-essential crew member still awake.

"Oh, Commander Shepard!" Tali exclaimed from her seat at the table. "I didn't realize that you were still up." Taking advantage of the epigenic treatment that she had received when she left for her Pilgrimage, the quarian girl had removed her environmental suit in favor of a set of loose-fitting civilian clothes.

"I could say the same about you," Shepard replied as she made her way to the food and beverage dispenser and ordered herself a coffee. "So, how are you adjusting to the _Normandy_?"

"It's great!" Tali said excitedly. "None of the ships in the Migrant Fleet are this advanced! And Chief Adams has been so nice to me, always being so patient and answering my questions – within reason of course," she added hastily, "nothing classified or anything. Although…" she trailed off, her enthusiasm quickly dying down.

"Although, what?" Shepard prodded as she sat down, a freshly-brewed cup of coffee in her hand.

"It's just…" Tali began hesitantly, "…it's just so _quiet_ here! Back on the Flotilla, when a ship goes quiet, then that means something's broken, like the gravity generators, the engines, or – Keelah forbid – the _life support_." The quarian gave a weary sigh and dropped her head in her hands. "I'm sorry if I sound like I'm whining; I guess it's just the stress from the past couple of days catching up to me," she groaned. Shepard looked on the younger girl with sympathy.

"I understand what you mean," she said as she sipped her coffee. "Unfortunately, I don't know how to help you. In the morning, you could try asking Doctor Chakwas if she has any sleeping aids that you can take," she suggested.

"Thanks, I think I will," Tali said as she stood up out of her chair. "I guess I better try to get some sleep," she continued. "Thanks for listening to me, and for giving me this opportunity."

"You're welcome," Shepard said simply, sipping her coffee. Nodding in acknowledgement, Tali went back to her pod, leaving Shepard alone in the mess hall with her thoughts and a hot cup of coffee.

Several hours and cups of coffee later, Shepard was finally tired enough to go back to sleep, only to be interrupted a couple hours later by Joker, who informed her that the Citadel Council wished to speak to her. Though her body protested, her mind knew that now that she was a 'Spectre', the Council members were technically her superiors, so she cleaned herself up and went down into the Communications room to confer with the alien tribunal.

"Shepard," the asari councilor, Tevos greeted. "We received your report. We're glad to hear that you've managed to safely secure Doctor T'soni."

"Though we hope that you are taking the necessary precautions, Commander," the salarian councilor, Drin, continued, "considering the doctor's connection to Matriarch benezia."

"We are," Shepard said simply.

"Though I do wonder if it was necessary for you to try to level the prothean ruins that you found her in during the process," the turian councilor sneered, or at least she think he sneered, even through translations Turians speech came in two tones. Shepard resisted the urge to scowl at the avian-like politician's gross exaggeration of the events.

"My mission was to safely secure Doctor T'soni," she instead replied. "Maintaining the condition of the ruins was not part of that objective."

"Yes, yes, of course," Drin said, nodding his head in agreement. "The mission must always come first, regardless of outlying factors. I'm glad to hear that you understand that, Shepard." The Spartan merely bowed her head slightly in thanks.

"Is that all, Councilors?" she asked.

"Yes, that is everything, Shepard," the asari councilor confirmed. "Good luck with your hunt," she bid farewell before terminating the feed. Fatigue threatening to overwhelm her, Shepard quickly made her way to her cabin and locked the door. Activating her comm-bead, she called the helm. "Lieutenant, I have some important business to attend to. Unless we find Saren or the ship is falling apart, I don't want to be disturbed for at least five hours, is that understood?" she demanded.

"Five hours of darkness unless things go FUBAR, you got it, Commander," Joker responded. Deactivating her comm-bead, Shepard removed her boots and pants before crawling into bed, allowing sleep to overcome her.

* * *

Unbeknownst to her, the sleep-deprived Spartan's progress was being tracked by another organization besides the Citadel Council. While many would call this organization's actions as morally ambiguous, if not abhorrent, those in power knew better; they knew that the things they did, no matter how unseemly they may be, were ultimately necessary.

At this moment, Shepard's progress towards Noveria was being followed by one Miranda Lawson. Among other tasks, she was assigned to keep tabs on humanity's rising star: To discretely nudge events to make the Spartan's life easier, as well as to ensure that she did not encounter anything that could raise suspicion.

Very few people knew that the people that Lawson worked for existed, and it was her job to keep it that way.

As Lawson daintily sipped her tea, an icon blinked on her computer to alert her of an incoming message. Setting the cup down, she activated the holo-pedestal on her desk to project the image of a woman in a business suit.

"What is it, Judith?" Lawson asked, her Australian heritage clear from her accent.

"Miss Lawson," the AI known as Judith greeted with a respectful dip of her head. "Our agents on Noveria have intercepted a distress signal coming from the Newton system," she reported.

"And how does that concern me?" Lawson asked with disinterest as she raised her teacup to her lips.

"The sender of the signal identified himself as Doctor Zachary Wayne," Judith replied, making Lawson pause.

"I see," the woman said, setting her drink down; she had heard of Doctor Wayne, and the absolute disaster that the man had been a part of several months before; he was a liability, and it would be good if he were to simply disappear. "Tell our agents on Noveria to erase all records of the distress call. Who's our closest field operative?" she demanded. Barely a second passed as Judith pored through her data banks and located the appropriate information.

"Operative Kai Leng is the closest field operative," the AI replied.

"Tell him to go to the Newton system," Lawson ordered. "Tell him that he is authorized to enact the standard erasure protocol," she added.

"As you wish," Judith said with a final bow of her head before disappearing. As she picked up her tea, Lawson could not help but sport a satisfied grin. Soon, a weak link would be removed from the chain, a potential leak plugged before the dam of secrecy could crumble, and it was not even noon yet.

* * *

The voyage to Noveria passed without incident, and the _Normandy_ began its descent towards the frozen planet. As Joker approached the planet, a harsh voice came through over the communications array.

"_Unidentified vessel, our defense array has you targeted. Identify yourself, or you __**will**__ be shot down_," the voice declared.

"Charming fellow," Joker muttered to himself before pressing a button to relay his response. "This is the _CSV Normandy_, requesting permission to dock," he said. There were a few moments of silence before the other man spoke again.

"_CSV Normandy_, you are not on our flight roster," he said. "What is your business here?"

"Citadel business," Joker responded. "We have a Spectre aboard," he added while transmitting several authorization codes his Commander had given him. Several tense seconds passed before he received another reply.

"Very well," the faceless man behind the radio finally said. "You may dock at Port Hanshan; relaying coordinates now." A console chimed to alert Joker that the coordinates had been received.

"Coordinates received, _Normandy_ out," Joker said before terminating the connection. "Such a warm and inviting place, Noveria," the snarky pilot muttered sarcastically to himself, "I'll have to take my next shore leave here." He flew his ship to the appointed docking station and gracefully maneuvered into the dockbed, barely making a sound as he attached the ship onto the magnetic anchors; satisfied with his work, Joker powered down the majority of the ship's systems. "Welcome to Noveria!" he cried out as he spun his chair around to observe Shepard and her crew. "Current forecast: Bitch-ass freezing outside, slightly less frigid inside. Enjoy your day, everyone." He spun back around with a pout when he noticed that no one had reacted to his declaration, instead they were double-checking their equipment.

Ashley and Kaidan had swapped out their normal uniforms for BDUs more suited for winter combat; their armor was colored white and had extra layering underneath, along with several integrated temperature regulation systems. Due to the sealed nature of their combat suits, none of the others needed to change into different attire for the frigid environment that awaited them beyond the comfort of the _Normandy_. As the ground team was about to disembark, they were interrupted by the ship's sole asari occupant running towards them.

"Commander Shepard!" Liara cried out to them.

"Doctor T'soni," Shepard replied. "It's good to see that you've recovered well. What did you want?"

"I want to join you," Liara declared. "I think I can help you," she added. Ashley barely repressed a snort at the comment; Shepard also frowned doubtfully.

"I appreciate the sentiment, Doctor," she said, "but I can't allow a civilian with no combat training into a possible fight, especially one that was recently in medical care." As Liara dipped her head down in disappointment, Tali chose the moment to speak up.

"Umm, Commander, you let _me_ into a firezone, and I'm technically a civilian," the young quarian pointed out.

"You have engineering expertise," the Spartan rebutted.

"You didn't know that at the time," Tali replied. Shepard sighed in frustration when she realized that the quarian had a point. She supposed that she could simply use her authority as the ship's commander to simply ban the young archaeologist from accompanying them, but part of her was curious as to why she seemed so eager to join them.

"Why do you want to come with us so badly?" she asked.

"My mother, Commander," Liara said. "I know that she's allied with Saren, but if I'm down there, maybe I can convince her to see reason."

"I thought you said that the two of you hadn't spoken in years," Garrus pointed out.

"We haven't," Liara admitted, "but I'm hoping that as her daughter, I can get through to her. And besides, if Saren used the prothean beacon on Eden Prime, then there's a possibility that he's using more artifacts. If there are, my expertise could help prevent any more…accidents," she said, to which Shepard winced.

"It still doesn't solve the problem of your combat experience," the Spartan said.

"I am a capable Biotic, and I've been defending ruins from looters by myself for the past twenty years, Commander, and before that I have had twenty-five years worth of combat and self-defense classes," Liara replied, her expression darkening. "Dare I say it, I have been learning to fight for more years then you have been alive." Shepard wanted to smack herself for forgetting how long-lived Asari were, but there was one more matter before the issue was resolved.

"And if the situation with Benezia becomes violent, can I depend on you in a firefight?" she asked. "Can you shoot at and possibly kill your own mother." Liara faltered for a moment, but her steely determination soon reasserted itself.

"If I have to," she said. Shepard looked into the young asari's eyes, looking for any doubt or deception and finding none.

"All right," the Spartan finally said. "Lieutenant, take the good doctor down to the armory and get her suited up," she ordered Kaidan.

"Yes, Commander," the Biotic said with a sharp salute. "Follow me, Doctor," he said as he led Liara down to the armory to get her outfitted with armor and a weapon. Ashley followed the two's departure with a frown on her face.

"Commander, may I speak to you in private for a moment?" she asked. Shepard frowned in confusion, but nodded in acceptance, leading Ashley to an isolated corner of the ship. "Permission to speak freely, Ma'am," Ashley requested.

"Permission granted," Shepard replied. "What's bothering you, Chief?"

"Commander, are you sure that it's a good idea, bringing all these aliens aboard?" the brown-skinned soldier asked, lowering her voice to a loud whisper. "The sangheili's your old war buddy, I get that, and the quarian is pretty good with the tech stuff, but the krogan merc and the turian cop? And now you're bringing in an asari bookworm? I have to ask, Ma'am, why the hell are we babysitting these guys?" Shepard suppressed a sigh as she massaged her temple.

"Mister Vakarian is the best source of information we have on Saren, and Doctor T'soni could help us with subduing Benezia, along with identifying any prothean artifacts we may stumble across." Shepard paused as she considered her next words. "To be honest, I'm not entirely sure of the krogan myself, especially as a merc working for free, but we could always use another skilled fighter on our team, and if he's with us then he's not with Saren, which is a win in my book."

"I…see, Commander," Ashley said slowly. Shepard narrowed her eyes slightly at her subordinate.

"I read your file, Williams, and I understand that you may be…hesitant to work with the Citadel," she said. "However, I cannot have your…personal issues jeopardizing the mission. Can I trust that there won't be any problems?"

"I understand, Ma'am," Ashley said. "I assure you, there won't be any problems on my end."

"Good," Shepard replied. The elevator doors hissed open, heralding the return of Kaidan and Liara. With the Normandy having no stock of asari hardsuits, the archaeologist was sporting a set of winter BDUs like her human contemporaries with a plasma rifle clipped to one hip and an M6E pistol hanging from the other. Shepard noticed that Kaidan had outfitted her with only EMP and flashbang grenades, and nodded with approval; despite her confidence with holding a gun, the Spartan was not about to trust the Asari with explosives. "All right people, button up, it's gonna be chilly out!" she shouted as she slipped on her helmet. Kaidan, Ashley and Liara followed suit; unlike the BDUs used during the First Covenant War, provided complete coverage. While not suitable for use in a vacuum like a Spartan's MJOLNIR armor, it would provide adequate protection against Noveria's harsh climate.

After stepping into the airlock and patiently waiting for the decontamination cycle to complete, the squad stepped out into the Noveria docking station. After walking a few feet, they were stopped by a security detail.

"Halt!" cried out the leader, a human woman of Asian descent; behind her was another woman – this one a blonde Caucasian – along with several turians and salarians. "This is a private facility. You must relinquish your weapons."

"Like hell we will," Wrex growled as he tightened his grip on his shotgun.

"We're here on Spectre business," Shepard declared, also firming her grip on the M-55 in her hands.

"Yes, I heard," the woman replied, her disbelief obvious in her tone. "Now again, relinquish your wea—" she began to repeat before a voice loudly interrupted them.

"Captain Matsuo, stand down!" a woman said loudly over the intercom. "They've been cleared, let them through," the voice continued. Matsuo gave an irritated sigh at having her authority circumvented, but orders were orders; she stepped aside and allowed Shepard and her crew to pass into the Port Hanshan facility unimpeded. Waiting for them was a tall, dark-skinned woman wearing a floor-length magenta dress, a data pad tucked under one arm. "I apologize for the display back there, Commander, the people here tend to be a bit jumpy around folks with guns," the woman said, her professional politeness and odd accent contrasting with the rather gruff welcoming that they had received just minutes before. "I am Giana Parasini, personal assistant to Administrator Anoleis," she introduced herself with an outstretched hand. "Let me be the first to welcome you to Noveria."

* * *

Ontarom was a planet that once had much potential as a garden world, but was now destined to oblivion through an act of nature. Though hotter than most would consider comfortable, the planet had a large supply of water as well as an oxygen-nitrogen rich atmosphere, making it suitable for colonization for most species. However, the decaying orbit of its moon has caused disastrous tidal activity, as well as interfering with the planet's magnetic field, creating fierce electrical storms; within the span of a few thousand years, the satellite will crash into the planet, greatly altering if not outright obliterating it. But at the moment, things are relatively peaceful.

A small section of space above Ontarom begins to bend in on itself, eventually ejecting a small, angular black ship, the words **UNSC MIDNIGHT** painted on the side in dull gray lettering. At the helm of this ship was a man by the name of Kai Leng, who was going over the readings of his equipment. The man seemed to be in his mid-thirties, though in actuality he was closer to his fifties; his head was shaved bald and he had scars scattered across his face. He seemed to be primarily of Chinese heritage, though a trained eye could see traces of Slavic lineage in his features as well. Satisfied that everything was in order, the man spoke into what seemed like thin air.

"Romulus, can you pinpoint the distress signal?" he asked. Near his left hand, a hologram flickered to life, showing the image of a man wearing the armor of a Greek soldier, covered by a cloak made from the pelt of a wolf.

"Scanning," the dumb AI said. A few moments later, he continued, "It seems that luck smiles upon us today, Operative Leng; we seem to be right on top of it. I have narrowed down the area that the signal is broadcasting from to within a five-hundred-meter diameter; unfortunately, due to the interference with the planet's magnetic field, I cannot pinpoint a more precise location unless I have a transmission booster to lock on to."

"I see," Leng said neutrally. "Bring us into minimum distance for a stable orbit, then prepare a Pelican for departure."

"Understood sir," Romulus acknowledged. "Shall I deploy the bombardment drones once we've reached orbit?" he asked.

"You do that," Leng half-dismissed as he got up out of the pilot's seat and headed to the small armory to prepare himself. With an ease and precision that could only come from being guided by an Artificial Intelligence like himself, Romulus guided the ship until he was as close as he could approach while maintaining a stable orbit. The first part of his task complete, Romulus sent a command through the ship's computers. Six drones, each about the size of an F-99 UCAV detached themselves from the ship's outer hull and maneuvered themselves into formation in front of the ship. The rears of the drones began to open like a flower blossoming, revealing the advanced machinery within. The transformation complete, the drones had converted into the Solar Ionic Bombardment Array.

The SIBA was secretly developed by the UNSC as a way to give smaller vessels, such as ONI Prowlers like the _Midnight_ the space-to-ground capabilities of a MAC gun without having to be large enough to support the weapon itself along with its attendant ammunition. The drones would collect ionic radiation emitted from a local star and direct it onto a specific point, charging the planet's atmosphere. Once a desirable charge level has been achieved, the ship would fire a laser into the array, inducing a plasma channel between the supercharged atmosphere and the ground destroying the target, similar to Covenant glassing techniques. During tests conducted on an uncolonized planet with a similar atmosphere to pre-colonization Mars, a single shot was able to completely destroy an area several kilometers in diameter. However, this destructive power came at a cost of time; the scientists conducting the tests had to focus on the same spot continuously for twenty-four standard hours before firing a shot.

"Bombardment array is deployed and charging," Romulus announced, thousands of minute calculations running through his matrix as he kept the Midnight and its array in geostationary orbit over the designated area.

"Ground team is ready for deployment," Leng responded. "Release the Pelican." With a mere thought on the AI's part, the magnetic clamps holding the Pelican dropship down were released and the cargo door opened to reveal the emptiness of space. The ship's pilot eased the Pelican out of the _Midnight_ and began their descent towards the planet. The world outside the window became washed out with light as the air around the Pelican glowed from atmospheric entry before revealing a landscape not unlike the African savannah on Earth. Within minutes they found the source of the distress signal, a simple pre-fabricated habitat standard for any pre-colonization survey team or burgeoning colony. What was unusual however were the two UT-47 Kodiak-class Drop Shuttles parked nearby, as well as the dead bodies that littered the ground; humans, turians and salarians laid scattered around the area, freshly killed if the puddles of blood that had yet to be soaked into the ground was any indication.

"_Daaaamn_," one of the troopers drawled, shocked at the carnage before him.

"Stay sharp," Leng warned softly, motioning for another soldier to take point. The door to the habitat was locked, but a few seconds of hacking resolved that problem and they quietly moved inside. Smoothly and quietly the fire team cleared the habitat, finding no one inside until the final room; through the door, they could hear a man shouting indistinctly. Leng silently ordered one of his subordinates to place a breaching charge on the door. The soldier carefully placed the charge on the door and backed away, giving Leng the detonator. Holding up his hand, he counted down the seconds until breaching.

3…

2…

1…

_Click_.

On the other side of the door, Doctor Zachary Wayne was kneeling on the floor with his hands behind his head, quivering partly in discomfort and partly in soul-gripping terror. A few weeks ago, he had found out that his associates from a failed project that he had worked on were turning up dead. At first, he had thought that it was his former employers coming to punish him for his failure, or else to keep him silent about the work that he had done, so he hired a team of mercenaries to protect him. He fled to Ontarom and, finding a decommissioned Alliance survey outpost there, tried to hail an Alliance ship; he'd rather take his chances with a UNSC tribunal than face the wrath of his mysterious pursuer. However, his luck seemed to have run out, as a couple of hours ago his hunter had found him, taking out his entire protection detail. Doctor Wayne now found himself at the mercy of his pursuer; to his surprise, it was not an agent of his former employers, but one of his test subjects, a UNSC Marine named Corporal Damien Toombs. Near the door were two vicious-looking turians, presumably part of Toombs' own mercenary force.

For the past hour, Toombs had ranted in great detail about how he was going to make Doctor Wayne suffer for what he had done to the broken Marine. The scientist had to suppress a wince; he could understand the soldier's dementia, as the experiments that he had been subjected to could generously be considered unpleasant. Though Doctor Wayne was certain that he was doing it for the good of humanity, the experiment was declared a failure and ordered all subjects to be euthanized, though the Corporal managed to escape before that could happen.

"…And then, once I've ripped out all your nails, I'm going to cut you open and—" Toombs ranted insanely, though whatever he was going to say next was cut off by a burst of intense light and ear-shattering noise. Through the pain and disorientation, Doctor Wayne was vaguely aware of his body being pushed down to the floor, having his hand forcibly pulled behind his back and bound before being pulled back onto his knees. When his ears stopped ringing and stars stopped flashing in his vision, he took in his surroundings and barely managed to keep from soiling himself. Beside him, Corporal Toombs was also bound and on his knees along with his two turian cohorts. Standing before them were six soldiers, all dressed in black armor save for their silver visors and a small, orange, diamond-shaped insignia on their left breast. Toombs had apparently shifted his rage from Doctor Wayne to his captors as he struggled against his restraints, cursing and spitting all the while until one of the soldiers jabbed something into his neck, which seemed to calm him down somewhat.

The apparent leader of the group stepped up to Corporal Toombs and drew a pistol from his side. Though Doctor Wayne was not an expert on identifying firearms, he knew that the weapon the soldier wielded was smaller than standard military issue. He also spotted a long tube attached to the front of the gun that was unmistakably a silencer.

"Corporal Damien Alexander Toombs," Leng said, his voice distorted by his suit's helmet, "you have served the UNSC well. However, you have been deemed a threat, both to galactic security as well as to the citizens of the Systems Alliance. I have been ordered to ensure that you are no longer a threat." He pointed his gun at Toombs' head, which seemed to snap the broken Marine out of his drug-induced reverie, as he began to struggle and curse anew, an action ignored by his soon-to-be executioner. "On behalf of humanity, Cerberus thanks you," Leng continued as he quickly pulled the trigger twice, causing the back of Toombs' head to explode in a burst of gore and making him fall forward, rage permanently fixed onto the man's face. As Leng turned to Doctor Wayne, the scientist felt himself losing control over his bodily functions in anticipation over what would soon be happening.

"Please, I'm begging you, don't kill me," he began to sob. "I'll do anything, just don't kill me." Leng ignored the man's pleas as he leveled his pistol at Wayne's head.

"Doctor Zachary Jacobs Wayne, you have violated orders given to you by Cerberus High Command by including UNSC personnel into your experiments," the assassin declared. "In doing so, you have placed our security at risk—"

"I did it all for the good of humanity!" Wayne cried out, interrupting Leng. "How could we know how effective Thresher Maw venom would be without a control subject?"

"We gave you a solution for that, Doctor, you simply chose to ignore it," Leng replied, annoyance at being interrupted lacing his words. "In doing so, you have placed our security at risk, a risk further compounded by allowing one of your test subjects to escape," he continued, gesturing towards Toombs' corpse. "Furthermore, you attempted to confess before a military tribunal, thereby compromising Cerberus entirely. You have become a risk, Doctor, one too dangerous to ignore." Before Wayne could beg for his life again, Leng fired another double-tap into his head, killing the man. His mission completed, Leng stepped back and holstered his pistol.

"Sir, what should we do with these two?" one of the soldiers asked, pointing towards the two turian mercenaries. Leng looked at them, his disgust concealed by his polarized visor. In addition to being aliens, something that the man completely detested, they were also mercenaries and pirates, thugs whoring out their services to the highest bidder. There was only one thing a person could do to scum such as them.

"Kill them," he ordered simply. The turians' pleads for mercy fell on deaf ears as they were cut down by close-range gunfire. "Drag the bodies outside, then search this facility for anything of value," Leng barked out. Four soldiers dragged the corpses out of the room by their feet while the remaining one searched for computers or other places where information or other valuable things may be hidden. As small as the facility was, the search did not take long and within the hour, Leng and his squad of troopers found themselves back on the _Midnight_.

"Operative Leng, the array is armed and ready to fire on your command," Romulus informed Leng as he returned to his seat at the helm.

"Fire," the Cerberus assassin ordered. His avatar bowing its head in acknowledgement, Romulus engaged a subroutine that activated the SIBA. The laser emitter mounted on the nose of the _Midnight_ shone a beam of concentrated light into the circle of drones, creating a plasma channel that struck the ground a few dozen meters from the facility that Leng had just vacated.

Had anyone witnessed the event from a distance where they would not be blinded by the brilliant flash of light, deafened by the earth-shaking thunder, or simply erased from existence as the intense heat incinerated them, they would have described it as an enormous pillar of light writhing through the air like a snake, a divine bolt cast down from the heavens to smite the world below; a sight that would inspire awe and terror in equal measure.

After fifteen seconds, the enormous bolt of lightning vanished, leaving only destruction in its wake. Though the facility itself, along with the two Kodiaks parked nearby had not been completely destroyed, the intense heat had reduced them to unidentifiable lumps of metal surrounded by a field of molten glass for over five hundred meters in any direction. The bodies that were lying outside were instantly vaporized, their armor reduced to their base components and scattered into the winds.

"Target has been neutralized," Romulus declared.

"Excellent," Leng responded. "Recall the drones and send a message to Cerberus Command that the problem has been resolved, then plot a course to the nearest starbase." Bowing his head, Romulus' avatar flickered from existence as he carried out his orders. Folding back into themselves, the drones drifted back to the _Midnight_ and reattached themselves to the outer hull. The Prowler began to turn away from Ontarom and flew off. As it went, the space around it seemed to warp around the ship until it disappeared, departing the system.

* * *

_**"Gentlemen, what we have today is not a peace; it is merely a temporary armistice. Whether it be in three years or three hundred, humanity will eventually come to blows with the Citadel races again. When that time comes, we must be ready to strike them down with all necessary means and force." – [Name Unknown], a.k.a. "The Illusive Man"**_

_The Citadel Races and the Systems Alliance first became aware of each other's presence in the year 2743 (SA Calendar) when a turian Relay patrol spotted an Alliance scouting group arriving from unknown coordinates into the Kolkira system. The turian patrol transmitted a message in basic binary code demanding the origins and motives of the Alliance scout team, but they did not respond for reasons currently unknown. Presuming their silence for hostility, the captain of the turian cruiser __**Intaltar**__ ordered the patrol fleet to open fire on the strangers. The Alliance retaliated, managing to destroy two turian ships and heavily damaging the rest before being forced to flee through Slipspace._

_Three months later, the Turian Hierarchy dispatched a fleet of thirty frigates, twelve cruisers and two dreadnoughts to back-trace the Mass Relay that the Alliance ships had used, eventually leading them to the Alliance frontier colony world of Shanxi. Facing only a token ground-to-orbit defense grid and a few ships docked for resupplying, the large turian force managed to easily clear away any resistance, although not without suffering casualties of their own._

_After the turians destroyed Shanxi's ground defenses and made landfall, guerilla strikes led by General Marcus Williams attempted to beat back the invaders, but due to the turians' brutal and efficient tactics, along with their willingness to destroy entire city blocks to root out one or two military fire teams, General Williams eventually surrendered in order to preserve the rest of the city's population. In the minds of the Systems Alliance, this incident marked the official beginning of the First Contact War._

_While the Alliance had been alerted during the initial invasion, fear that the turians had booby-trapped the Mass Relays prompted the rescue fleet to use the safer, but much slower method of Slipspace to travel to Shanxi. This, combined with the technical difficulties in coordination between the general staffs of the UNDF and the New Covenant fleet, along with uncertainty about the appropriate size for a counter-assault force from the political quarters meant that it would be nearly four months before a retaliation force would arrive. In the meantime, two ONI Prowler stealth vessels were inserted into the turian-controlled space surrounding Shanxi; though the vessels themselves were eventually spotted and destroyed, they managed to successfully insert their cargo: Several ONI reconnaissance teams equipped with Smart AIs dispatched to gather intelligence on the turian invaders. _

_The 6th, 7th and 9th Combined Alliance Fleets arrived over Shanxi and quickly destroyed the turian naval presence. AI-controlled electronic warfare suites crippled the turian ships' functionality, as well as ensuring that the fleet could not call for reinforcements; this feat was made possible by a combination of a treaty made between the Alliance and the Quarian Conclave two months before, granting the Alliance intimate knowledge in Citadel-design computer architecture and coding and intelligence recovered from the ONI operatives. Over the course of two months, the ground assault forces led by Commander James Richter captured two turian forward bases and eventually rooted out the alien presence within Shanxi itself._

_Intelligence salvaged from the bases and ships before destruction revealed the locations of several turian military staging grounds and fleet anchorages. What followed was Operation Sleeping Giant, a massive strategic offensive lasting three vicious months with multiple fleets striking deep into the turians' strategic depth. Almost all ground engagements included the deployment of SPARTAN-IV commandoes, which led to the rekindling of their legendarily fearsome reputation. For the first time since the end of the Second Human-Covenant War, space-to-surface MAC bombardment and partial planet glassing were authorized. Rumors of HAVOK tactical nuclear devices being authorized for use as well have circulated throughout the extranet, though none were actually deployed; UNDF representatives have neither confirmed nor denied these rumors._

_The turian counterattack drew in over half of the entire standing turian fleet, but failed to halt the Alliance. After several critical star systems were lost, the turian expeditionary force amounting to almost two-fifths of the turian fleet was threatened with a massive strategic encirclement. The response on Palaven was for the full mobilization of the entire Turian Hierarchy for total war and to call on their Council allies for aid. To prevent the looming catastrophe and to halt further escalation of the conflict, the asari delegation of the Citadel Council stepped in to negotiate a cease-fire. After a month of tense negotiations with both sides mobilizing ever greater numbers of ships and troops and the deteriorating situation in the turian salient (often referred to as "the cauldron"), a more permanent peace treaty was eventually signed, ending the First Contact War. The terms were essentially a white peace, status quo antebellum along with a demilitarized zone between the turian and Alliance space, along with the deactivation of several Mass Relays._

_During both the initial attack and rescue operation, atomized Element Zero was released into the atmosphere over Shanxi from destroyed turian ships. Throughout the First Contact War and for the next year afterwards, approximately fourteen thousand people were diagnosed with various lung, lymph node and skin cancers. Approximately eight hundred births were also recorded to have eezo-nodules integrated into their nervous systems, creating the first generation of Biotic presence within the Systems Alliance._

_Following the end of the war, many politicians have attempted to pass bills to increase the orbital defenses of border colonies, though bureaucratic and logistical difficulties have made progress slow. Though General Williams was cleared of any criminal actions by a military tribunal, he was discharged from service, and the social stigma of being the one who surrendered to an alien presence resonates through the Williams family to this day._

_Since the end of the First Contact War, several books and documentaries have been made concerning it._

* * *

__Well, there it is. I hope you enjoyed it. For those who've read the books, I hope that I portrayed Kai Leng accurately.

As always, don't forget to review._  
_


	7. Chapter 7

I do not own Halo or Mass Effect. They belong to 343 Industries and BioWare, respectively.

This chapter is currently unbetaed. I've sent it to Dusel and Havoc and will replace this if/when I ever hear back from either of them.

* * *

When Shepard first stepped onto Noveria and spotted the security team waiting for them, the Spartan was worried that a confrontation would soon break out, a feeling that continued to grow when they refused to allow her or her crew in without surrendering their weapons. Fortunately, someone authorized their entry before anyone could shoot anything more damaging that harsh words and dirty glares.

"I am Giana Parasini, personal assistant to Administrator Anoleis," the woman who had allowed Shepard entry into Noveria introduced herself. "Let me be the first to welcome you to Noveria."

"Thanks for letting us in," Shepard said, shaking the offered hand. "Things were getting a bit tense back there for a second," she added as she removed her helmet, cradling it under one arm.

"I imagine," Parasini quipped. "What can I help you with?"

"We're investigating a turian named Saren Arterius," the Spartan explained. "We believe that he has some investments here that could help with the investigation."

"Saren Arterius…" the darker-skinned woman muttered to herself as she consulted her data pad. After a few seconds of searching, she said, "Yes, Mister Arterius does have some holdings her, particularly in Binary Helix. I don't have anything else for you, sorry."

"We're also looking for an asari Matriarch named Benezia. Do you have any information about her?" Garrus asked.

"Benezia…. The name sounds familiar; let me check." Several seconds passed in silent anticipation while Parasini searched her records. "Ah, here we go," she finally declared. "Matriarch Benezia arrived with cargo and an escort three days ago. They left for the Peak Fifteen research station soon after."

"Peak Fifteen? What's that?" This time, it was Liara who spoke up.

"I don't know," Parasini replied with an apologetic shrug. "The details of what goes on in the research labs are strictly confidential; even I don't know what goes on there."

"Then how can we get to Peak Fifteen?" Shepard asked, irritation beginning to creep into her voice. The Spartan was beginning to lose her patience; the more time they spent talking, the further ahead Saren would progress in whatever scheme he was hatching.

"The only way to the labs is a path through the mountains," Parasini explained. "Access to the labs is restricted, due to security concerns as well as the snowstorm currently going outside; you'll need to speak to Administrator Anoleis to get clearance. Please, follow me."

"What sort of cargo did Benezia bring?" Shepard asked as Parasini led her to her superior's office.

After a quick consultation of her records, she replied, "Several crates: Large, sealed, and heavy. Odd," she said with a frown, "it says here that most of the cargo is still here."

Parasini led the heavily-armored woman down several hallways and up an elevator until they reached the Administrator's office. The reception area was a simple room; a square chamber with a few chairs, a receptionist's desk against the far wall, and a pair of doors that led to Administrator Anoleis' office. Anoleis himself was a purple-skinned salarian wearing a dark blue suit and a dour expression on his face as he worked away at his computer, oblivious to his visitors' presence.

"Administrator, there's a Commander Shepard here to see you," Parasini declared.

"Yes, yes, show her in," the salarian said impatiently, beckoning them in with an absent-minded wave of his hand. Shepard stepped deeper into the room and took a seat. Though the chair creaked slightly, it easily supported her weight, having been designed with krogan in mind. Without looking up from his work, Anoleis asked, "So, what can I do for the Council today?"

Shepard removed her helmet and placed it on her lap, laying her hands on top of it. "Administrator, I am currently investigating former operative Saren Arterius," she said in an official tone. "I understand that he has made some investments towards a project at the Peak Fifteen research station; I require a garage pass so that I may inspect things for myself."

Several seconds passed as Anoleis rubbed his chin, seemingly considering her request. Finally he said, "I'm afraid that I'm going to have to deny your request. You see, many of the stockholders here pay a premium to ensure their privacy. The Board of Directors can't afford to have the Council to simply snooping around their clients' personal affairs whenever they feel the need, and they have an agreement with them to ensure that they have that power. If you have a warrant on hand compelling me to give you the information that you seek on Mister Arterius, then of course I will provide it, but if you don't, then I bid you good day." As Anoleis directed his attention back to his computer, Shepard clenched her jaw and tightened her grip on her helmet to keep calm.

"I see…" she declared, maintaining an air of calmness. "Thank you for your assistance in this matter." Not waiting for the salarian to respond, Shepard stood up and departed the room as quickly as decorum permitted. As the Sparten departed, Parasini cleared her throat, catching Shepard's attention.

"You know, Mister Anoleis isn't the only one with a garage pass," she said softly to avoid catching her employer's attention. "Go to the hotel bar. There, you'll meet a turian named Lorik Qui'in. He can help you with your little problem." Silently nodding in understanding, Shepard departed Anoleis' office. Finding a public floor map of the facility, Shepard plotted a route to the hotel bar; she radioed her team to meet her there before heading over herself.

"Hey Commander, what's going on?" Kaidan asked as Shepard stepped into the hotel courtyard.

"Parasini told me that a turian named Qui'in could help us get to where Benezia was headed," she explained.

"A turian, eh?" Garrus muttered to himself as he scanned the crowd. "Him, maybe?" he asked, pointing to a lone turian in a dark blue suit, sitting alone in the far corner of the open bar and nursing a bottle of beer.

"Maybe," Shepard agreed. "I'll try him; the rest of you split up and ask around in case it isn't him." The rest of the crew murmured their understanding before dispersing throughout the area, leaving Shepard to stride up to the lone turian. "Lorik Qui'in?" she asked. The turian looked up at her in vague interest before recognition flashed across his face.

"Commander Shepard, it is quite an honor," the turian exclaimed. "Please, have a seat." When she did not take the offered chair, he added reassuringly, "I heard that you Spartans were a bit on the…heavy side, but don't worry about breaking them; they're built to support krogans after all." Shepard looked at the chair warily, but slowly sat down. While it creaked ominously, true to his word, it did not break. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this meeting?" Qui'in asked, sipping his drink.

"How do you know my name?" Shepard inquired.

"Your identity was distributed throughout the security personnel the moment your ship entered our ports," Qui'in explained, taking another pull from his beer. "But even without that, The Council making a non-Citadel-aligned race a Spectre? You can't expect that to not make news. Now, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

"I need to get to the Peak Fifteen research station," Shepard said. "I heard that you could help me get a garage pass."

"I see," Qui'in noted. "While I do have a garage pass, I'm afraid that I require your assistance in a slight matter before I hand it over to you." Shepard resisted the urge to groan in frustration.

"What do you need?" She sighed. She should have known that it would not have been that simple.

"A simple thing, really," Qui'in assured her. "There are a few files on my office computer that I need; unfortunately, I've currently been suspended, and have been locked out of my office."

"What sort of files are we talking about here?" Shepard asked, finding the whole business to be rather shady in nature.

"And why were you suspended in the first place?" asked Garrus, having seen that Shepard had found who they were looking for and had come up to join them. Judging from the tone of his voice, the former C-Sec officer shared her suspicions.

"He with you?" Qui'in asked, nodding towards Garrus. When Shepard nodded to confirm their association, the security chief continued. "Lucky for me, those two answers are closely intertwined, which saves me a bit of time. A few weeks ago, I noticed some irregularities surrounding Anoleis. Things had been running a bit too smoothly lately: People being processed faster than normal, certain items clearing customs a bit too quickly. When I looked at his bank statements, I noticed that he seemed to be earning a fair bit more than someone of his position should be making."

"Kickbacks," Garrus concluded.

"That's what I thought, yes," Qui'in agreed. "Unfortunately, before I could present my findings, Anoleis caught wind of my sniffing around. Two days ago, I was suspended pending an investigation for corruption. He's also got several security personnel in his back pocket; they're likely ransacking my office right now in an attempt to find that data. Fortunately, I know a few tech-savvy individuals of…less than reputable standing who owed me a favor, so I'm confident that the files are still safe." Qui'in activated his omni-tool and tapped a few buttons; Garrus' lit up and chimed to notify him that he had received a file. "My entrance pass has been revoked, but I sent your friend a spoof pass that I managed to procure. I've also sent a key that will allow you to access and download the files, as well as directions to my office. I'd send it to you, but it is my understanding that humans don't use omni-tools; some silliness about fearing implanted spyware to steal their secrets." Qui'in chuckled to himself at the apparent absurdity of it.

"Thank you for your help, Mister Qui'in," Shepard said as she stood up, ignoring the barb against her species. "We'll return with those files shortly."

"Take your time," Qui'in replied. As Shepard turned to leave, he added, "And Commander? Do try not to get bloodstains on the carpets; they're a nightmare to get out." Rolling her eyes at the turian's attempt at gallows humor, the Spartan slipped her helmet back on and met with the rest of the ground team near the entrance of the hotel.

"So what's the word, Skipper?" Ashley asked.

"Qui'in's willing to help us, but we need to help him get some dirty laundry on Anoleis first," Shepard answered. "Vakarian here has the programs we need to get in and get the data, so the two of us will be going up. Alenko, Williams, you're coming with us for security; the rest of you, stay here." Bringing up his omni-tool, Garrus led the Alliance soldiers to the elevator that would take them to Lorik Qui'in's office. "Be ready for a fight," Shepard warned as she removed her M-55 from her back. "I'd rather not get into a shoot-out, but if Anoleis' goons are there, we may not have much of a choice." Nodding in understanding, Garrus and the other two humans drew their respective weapons, ready to shoulder and fire them at a moment's notice. When the elevator doors slid open, the group of soldiers heard the sounds of an office being ransacked, along with a woman's voice angrily barking orders.

"Keep looking!" shouted Kaira Stirling, the blonde woman that had greeted them at the docks. "He had to have hidden a backup copy of the data somewhere. And where the hell are we on his computers?!" Hearing the doors to the elevator slide open, she turned to see the four intruders emerge. Muttering curses under her breath, she summoned several of her officers, who quickly grouped towards her and pointed their weapons at Shepard and her team. Soon, the four Normandy crew members found themselves in a tense standoff with more than twice their number of Noveria security forces.

"Well, they're not shooting at us yet, so that's a good sign," Kaidan sarcastically muttered under his breath.

"You're not supposed to be here," Stirling snarled. "You have ten seconds to turn around and leave, or else things are going to become really messy for you." Much to the surprise of her and everyone else present, Shepard began to chuckle at the threat.

"Are you blind, or just stupid?" she asked, amusement lacing her voice. "Take a good look at this armor, lady. Do you _really_ think that you and your band of rent-a-cops can take on a Spartan?"

"She's got a point, boss," one of the lower-ranked guards stage whispered to Stirling.

"Now, this can go one of two ways," Shepard continued. "You can either pretend that we never saw each other and you walk quietly away, or…things can become rather messy for _you_. Which is it?" Several tense seconds passed as Stirling weighed her options, her loyalty to her employer warring with her sense of self-preservation. Self-preservation eventually won out, and she lowered her weapon.

"Shit, Anoleis isn't paying me enough to wash away his dirt with my blood," she declared, stowing away her weapon. "Screw him, the data's yours, assuming you can get to it, that is. Come on guys, we were never here." The security guards all lowered their guns and stepped around Shepard and her squadmates as they left Qui'in's office.

"Well, that went better than I expected," Garrus quipped. Now that they were no longer under imminent threat of being shot at, the turian took the time to take in just how large the workspace was. "Impressive," he said with a whistle of appreciation. "My apartment is smaller than this office." Despite the drab concrete walls making for an aesthetically displeasing atmosphere, the office did seem to be built more as a luxurious apartment than an office. The office was two stories high and from a quick glance at the room's dimensions, Shepard guessed that it was at least two hundred square meters in size. There were several alcoves where plants grew, as well as numerous windows that overlooked the mountains, though the view was currently obscured by the snowstorm outside.

"Spread out and look for Qui'in's computer," Shepard ordered. "Vakarian, you check the second floor." Despite the sheer size of the office, it was sparsely furnished, so it took only a few minutes to find the security chief's computer. Using the key that Garrus possessed, they were able to bypass Qui'in's security measures and retrieve the files that they needed. When the trio departed from the office, they were surprised to find Parasini waiting for them. "What are you doing here?" the Spartan asked, firming her grip on her weapon.

"Just here to congratulate you on a job well done, Commander," Parasini replied. "I assume that you've got the dirt on Anoleis, and since Stirling and her goons didn't run out of here screaming for their lives, you did it without any bloodshed. Nice work," she complimented.

"Who are you?" Kaidan asked with suspicion. In response, Parasini held up her hand, which held the badge of a law enforcement official.

"Gianna Parasini, Noveria Internal Affairs," she reintroduced herself. "I've been undercover trying to dig up evidence against Anoleis. While you were upstairs playing detective, I took the opportunity to speak to Mister Qui'in. He's agreed to testify, but I still need the data that you retrieved in order to arrest him."

"And how do we know we can trust you?" Shepard demanded. Mindful of the heavily-armed soldiers in front of her, Parasini slowly dropped her badge into her purse and drew from it a keycard.

"Qui'in's garage pass," she explained. "You give me the data, I give you this, and we both walk away happy. No muss, no fuss. What do you say, Commander, do we have a deal?" Shepard spent several seconds considering the offer. Parasini seemed sincere in her offer, and the Spartan could not find any catch in it, so she nodded in agreement. After Garrus forwarded the files to her, Parasini passed Shepard the pass and took off to make her arrest, "Next time we meet, Shepard, I owe you a beer!" being her departing words.

Shepard summoned everyone to the garage entrance and with her newly-acquired pass, they had little difficulty passing the checkpoint. The garage itself was rather large, populated by several vehicles and their attendants, along with numerous large metal crates arranged in a corner of the room. Among the vehicles were modified versions of the M35 Mako Infantry Fighting Vehicle that made up the bulk of the Citadel's mobile armor forces. Though visibly identical, these models lacked the capability to fire large shots like their military counterparts, though the machinegun turret remained.

"Tanks? They have freaking _tanks_?" Ashley asked incredulously. "What the hell would a bunch of corporate suits need tanks for?"

"I remember reading something somewhere about how wild animals live in the mountains here," Garrus responded. "Sometimes they wander into the roads, so the drivers need the guns to at least scare them off."

"Oh." That answer seemed to satisfy Ashley. In the cacophony of machinery and workers' chatter, no one noticed the sound of metal crates being opened, but when several red dots suddenly appeared on Shepard's radar, she spun her head around to see over a dozen geth platforms, including a few rocket troopers, standing in and around the crates.

"Geth!" she shouted as she dove behind a wall, firing her weapon to suppress them. This caused a panic within the garage as people scrambled to find safety. While many had ducked behind walls or machines, a few foolish workers had tried to make a mad dash for the main building, and were mercilessly cut down by the machines for their efforts. The largest crate burst open to reveal a geth Armature, its singular eye glowing brightly.

Some of the Mako operators went into their vehicles and fired at the geth with their machine guns, but only managed to pick off a few of the mechs before the tanks were destroyed by the Armature's pulse cannon. The glowing blue projectile streaked across the room before smashing against the ground in front of one Mako. The blast sent one tank tumbling into its neighbor, knocking both vehicles onto their backs. Even if the operators had survived the rough handling, the tanks themselves were useless until they could be righted again, effectively removing them from the firefight.

"We need to take out that Armature or we're dead!" Garrus shouted. Due to the cramped environment, the turian had eschewed his sniper rifle in favor of an assault rifle.

"You don't say?" Wrex snapped sarcastically as he ejected the heat sink of his shotgun. "And how do you propose we do that, Turian?" Inserting a new heat sink, the krogan mercenary quickly popped out of cover and blew the head off a geth trooper that had tried to flank them before retreating back into cover. When Ashley rose from cover to do the same, a lucky shot managed to hit her in the shoulder, knocking her back.

"Alenko, check on Williams!" Shepard ordered, not taking her eyes off her enemy.

"I'm fine!" Ashley protested over Kaidan's tending to her wound. "It was a clean shot. Hurts like a son of a bitch, though," she groaned to herself.

"I think I can take down that Armature with a couple of well placed grenades," Shepard shouted, laying down suppressive fire towards the main geth group, "but I need to get it to stay still so I can line up a throw."

"Shepard," Liara called out over the gunfire. "If I can get closer to it, I can temporarily trap that Armature in a stasis field. That will give you a bit of time to disable it." Shepard thought that the idea had merit.

"Pass me your pistol," she ordered. Liara complied and Shepard used the neural uplink feature of the pistol to peer around the corner, surveying the area. "You sure about this?" she asked as she passed the pistol back and took potshots at the geth with her own gun, quickly dodging a rocket sent her way.

"…I'm fairly certain," Liara replied after a moment's pause. The young archaeologist's hesitation did little to boost Shepard's confidence, but it was a risk that they would have to take. That still left one problem, though.

"We're not going anywhere while they're shooting at us," she said.

"Leave it to me," said Tali, who had set aside her gun and was currently tapping away at her omni-tool. "I can hack a couple of the smaller geth to provide a distraction. It won't last more than a few seconds, though."

"That's all we'll need," Shepard assured the young quarian. "Are you ready?" At the quarian's nod of affirmation, the Spartan stuck the rifle to her back as she and Liara prepared to make a dash to new cover. "On three. One…two…_three_!" Tali sent out the virus that she had constructed, compelling two of the geth platforms to fire upon their comrades. While they were distracted, Liara and Shepard ran towards an outcropping closer to the Armature.

"Give me a second," Liara requested as she focused her concentration. A corona of biotic energy flared around her body, making her appear wreathed in indigo flames. A large ball of energy the size of her head formed between her hands. "Whenever you're ready Shepard," the asari said, sweat beading on her forehead from the exertion. "I can only hold it for a few seconds, so whatever you have planned will have to be quick." Shepard quickly peeked around the corner to see that the geth troops were still concentrating their fire on the rest of the squad, leaving them open.

Stowing away her weapon and grabbing two plasma grenades, Shepard gave the order to Liara to attack the Armature. She threw the orb of energy towards the heavy geth platform, engulfing it in a biotic field and causing it to freeze in its tracks. Shepard thumbed the arming button on both grenades before tossing them towards the Armature. Moments before they struck their target, Liara released the Stasis field she held over the geth war machine, allowing the active plasma grenades to stick to it. While one fell short of its mark and landed on the Armature's right foreleg, the other landed right where it was needed: At the joint where the Armature's neck connected with its body.

"Everybody get down!" Shepard ordered a second before the grenades detonated, causing the heavy mech to be engulfed in twin azure blasts. When the smoke cleared, the Armature was destroyed. One leg was completely disintegrated, while its decapitated head and neck lied several feet away. With that threat eliminated, it was much easier to dispatch the remaining geth troops, especially when the Noveria security forces arrived to flank the mechs. Within minutes, the invaders had been defeated. Ignoring Captain's Matsuo's incredulous sputtering about the geth's presence, Shepard marched over to her squad and demanded a status report.

"Everyone's fine, except for Chief Williams, Ma'am," Kaidan summarized.

"Good to hear," Shepard said. "Lieutenant, escort Chief Williams back to the _Normandy_ and get her patched up. Tali, stay here and coordinate with the disposal crew. I want to be absolutely certain that these geth aren't going to wake up and wreak havoc somewhere down the line. If anyone gives you crap, tell them you're operating under my orders."

"You got it, Shepard," Tali said. With their orders given, the three operatives cleared out to their respective tasks, leaving the rest alone. When Shepard wondered aloud how they were going to get to Peak Fifteen now, a nearby asari made herself known.

"I-I can take you," she said nervously. Her anxiety was quite understandable, considering that she was a civilian who had seen several of her friends and colleagues mercilessly gunned down just minutes before. "One of the Makos is still intact, and I can drive you." After the driver was given a dose of sedatives to calm her down, Shepard and her crew piled into the sole remaining intact Mako and drove off to the Peak Fifteen research station. The trip went surprisingly smoothly. They ran into a few geth garrisons, but they consisted of only a few troopers and easily plowed through; clearly, Benezia had expected the squadron left at the garage to eliminate any would-be pursuers. After almost twenty minutes of navigating the winding mountain roads, they finally arrived at Peak Fifteen. It was an unwelcome sight that awaited them: Complete, total emptiness. Not a soul was around to greet them, not even a security detail. It was if the facility had been abandoned. The eeriness was compounded when they found a room that contained several defense turrets pointed _into_ the facility.

"Why would someone aim turrets towards their own people?" Liara asked in equal parts of confusion and anxiety.

"Keep sharp, something's not right here," Shepard warned as she and her squad plumbed deeper into the facility. It was clear that something had happened there. A fight of some sort had occurred there: Broken equipment and furniture has been tossed across the room. Much of it had been smashed to bits, but quite a few of the destroyed furnishings, as well as the walls had rough, bubbled textures, like someone had splashed a highly corrosive agent about the room. Dried stains of red, blue, and other colors gave the rooms a grisly décor, though there was a conspicuous lack of bodies to accompany all the blood.

"What was that?" Ket suddenly asked, warily checking his corners. A faint clicking noise could be heard, like the sound of many legs scrambling across a metal surface; a clicking noise that was steadily growing louder. The noise came to a head as an insect-like creature nearly as tall as a sangheili burst from the floors with a piercing screech. It scuttled around on four legs with two long, whip-like tentacles ending in bulbous pincers swaying to and fro.

"Contact!" Garrus shouted as all the squad members fired upon the beast. Though the creature's chitinous armor was tough, it did little to protect it from the dozens of hypersonic bullets that ripped through its form. From the hole that the creature rose from crawled several glowing green insects the size of Shepard's fist. Wrex and Liara combined their biotic powers to create a wall that swept the bugs away. When the tiny insects smacked against the walls and floor, they burst in a spray of acid, the metal hissing and fizzling as the corrosive ichor ate away at it.

"What the hell was that thing?" Shepard asked as they warily approached the dead creature for a closer look. When they approached it, Liara gave a shocked gasp when she saw the thing, while Wrex's face twisted into a visage of rage.

"Rachni," the krogan spat, hate oozing from his voice. "These damn things were the reason why my species was uplifted in the first place."

"But it's not possible," Liara said, still shocked by what she saw. "They were driven extinct almost three thousand years ago!"

"Well, evidently we missed a few," Wrex retorted, nudging the rachni carcass with the muzzle of his shotgun.

"So what sort of combat capabilities are we looking at here?" Shepard asked.

"If I remember my history lessons right, these big ones are soldiers," Wrex replied. "We got lucky with this one; normally they like to fight in groups. Their greatest weapon is the acid that they like to spit at you. If you don't watch yourself, you'll end up as a puddle of goo faster than you can blink. Same with those little green bastards, too. Get one on you, you'll probably live; get a bunch on you, kiss your ass good-bye." Shepard nodded in understanding. An enemy that fired acid and liked to attack in groups, likely from ambushes; they would definitely need to keep on their toes this time. If these things were running loose throughout the facility, it could also explain why there was no one else there.

"All right, keep your eyes peeled and your weapons ready. Move out," the Spartan ordered. Wary of this new foe before them, they carefully moved deeper into the facility.

* * *

Human ambassador Donnel Udina rubbed his head in an attempt to ward off the headache that he could feel coming on. The Saren situation was progressing surprisingly well in his opinion, with Shepard currently heading towards Noveria to investigate Saren's holdings there. He was leery of the Commander's decision to keep Matriarch Benezia's daughter aboard her ship instead of taking her into custody, but there was little that he could do about that; as a Council Spectre, neither he nor anyone else in the Systems Alliance technically held any authority over the Spartan. He had requisitioned a protective fleet around Feros when he learned that Saren had paid a visit there, but had only managed to get two frigates to orbit the planet. The settlement that was there consisted of only a few hundred people – more a research outpost than a proper colony – and it was decided that trying to sustain more than a couple of ships would strain the colony's limited resources to the breaking point. The only consolation that he could find was that after Saren's mysterious visit, there was no further activity in that area of space.

A soft chime informing him that he had an incoming communication broke Udina from his reverie. Accepting the request, the office's holographic projector flickered to life to reveal the form of the asari councilor.

"Councilor Tevos, to what do I owe the pleasure of this call?" he asked politely. In his almost ten years as ambassador, he had never received a call from an individual councilor; they had always contacted him as a group. Across the room from him, New Covenant ambassador Gara 'Tarum paused in his work and turned his attention towards the projection.

"Ambassadors," Councilor Tevos greeted with a slight nod of her head. "I am calling you as representative of the Asari Republics. I have just received some interesting news, and I am hoping that this could turn into a beneficial situation for all of us."

"Go on…" 'Tarum beckoned.

"Three days ago, long-range comm buoys around Illium picked up a communications signal. Though the message was heavily degraded, it was intact enough for analysts to determine that it was of human origin," Tevos explained.

"I see," Udina said, keeping his voice neutral; after all, it did not seem that the councilor was accusing him of anything.

"Normally, this would be suspect," the asari continued, "but we have determined based on the degradation of the signal that it was pre-contact. There is also no Mass Relay there, or else we would have investigated it ourselves."

"What is it that you are proposing?" 'Tarum asked.

"Like I said, there is no Mass Relay at the source of the signal, and it is beyond the range of traditional faster-than-light travel," Tevos said. "However, with your slipspace technology, that is not an issue. What I am proposing is that you send someone to investigate the signal and while you are there, scan the system for any resources. If you find anything, I would like to negotiate a mining contract with the Systems Alliance. You would of course receive credits and a modest percentage of all resources as payment," she proposed.

Udina was practically drooling at the thought of how much political capital this deal could bring him. The chance to reclaim a lost, pre-contact ship along with a possible mining contract would send him soaring up the ladder if it all came through. Putting on his best smile, he said, "I'm sure we can work something out, Councilor."

* * *

**CODEX ENTRY 3.58 – SECOND COVENANT WAR**

_The conflict that would later come to be known as the First Covenant War ended in 2553 after nearly 30 years of non-stop war. This same year, the group of Covenant Separatists led by sangheili Arbiter Thel 'Vadam reformed into the New Covenant of Allied Races and formalized an alliance with the humans that would later become the Systems Alliance. However, the forces of the Covenant Loyalists quickly rallied under the banner of charismatic jiralhanae chieftain Barbatus; while much weaker than before, the reformed Covenant still proved to be a threat to both bodies. Also a concern was the existence of several Forerunner superweapons known simply as "Halos". On July 1 2554, the UNSC and New Covenant officially declared the Second Covenant War, a campaign with a two-fold objective: Defeat the Loyalists and find and neutralize the remaining Halo constructs. The following conflict would last ten years._

_Using data obtained from various Forerunner sources, the Halos were relatively simple to locate. Fearing a possible Flood contamination, the surfaces of the ring worlds were glassed before they were divided into sections and towed into the nearest sun. Within two years, all of the Halos were located and destroyed._

_Over the years, the UNSC and New Covenant slowly beat back the Loyalists, liberating those who were enslaved into doing their bidding, and annihilating those who voluntarily fought under Barbatus' banner. Near the end of the war, the Loyalists' forces had been forced back to their sole remaining stronghold, the jiralhanae homeworld of Doisac. Barbatus was given one final opportunity to surrender towards the enemy that surrounded him and his homeworld; he refused. Barbatus and his family died when his flagship was destroyed. After the remaining fleet was destroyed, the UNSC bombarded Doisac from orbit until the jiralhanae were reduced to a pre-spaceflight civilization. This event marked the official end of the Second Covenant War. To this day, Doisac is under constant monitoring by surveillance buoys and is frequently visited by UNSC ship patrols to ensure that the jiralhanae do not rediscover spaceflight._

_After the war ended, the New Covenant assisted in bringing the humans in reparations from damages brought on by both wars. After said reparations were complete, the two entities agreed to an isolation policy that would last for 150 years. After the agreement expired, old wounds had healed between both factions, and they could make steps to truly become an equal alliance._

* * *

__Sorry for taking so long to get this out, everyone! Unfortunately, I can't guarantee that the next chapter will come out any quicker.

With Halo 4 just around the corner, I'd like to make a quick list of things that I will **not** be implementing into the story for future reference:

*No Halo media chronologically post-Halo 3.

*Nothing from the Forerunner novels.

*No Leviathan DLC. I'll consider any future campaign DLC as they emerge.

I think that's everything.

Don't forget to review!


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